


Time

by honestlyrachel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, maurader era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-02-24 02:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13203573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestlyrachel/pseuds/honestlyrachel
Summary: Lily Evans asks you to pay a little attention to Severus Snape in your fourth year at Hogwarts, mainly to draw a bit of attention away from her friendship with him. As her best friend, you agree to do so, though paying a "little" attention to Severus may prove harder than you think!Severus/You





	1. 4th Year - The Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Hi,  
>   
> Please review and let me know what you think :)  
>   
>  **Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.

  **September, 1974**

  
The Hogwarts Express chugged steadily along the same old railway tracks towards Scotland. The thought of beginning a new year at school distracted those aboard from the small shakes and screeching noises the steam train made as it headed up north. The train was full of mixed emotions this morning. Nervous first years explored the carriages in hope of finding an empty compartment to hide in, or perhaps a welcoming face to sit with. Returning students roamed up and down the aisles cockily, sharing summer tales and treats from the trolley with their friends.

A group of hugging students blocked the door to the last carriage. You pushed through the group of Hufflepuffs and yelled a loud and fairly insincere apology back towards them when their scornful murmurs reached her ears. The last compartment in the last carriage was where Lily Evans sat.

You had met Lily on your very first day of at Hogwarts four years ago in this very same carriage. You had come in and opened a chocolate frog which had jumped straight onto Lily's knee. She had screamed and tried to step on it whilst you shot around the carriage trying to catch it. After you had stuffed the frog into your mouth and apologised you had noticed the look of bewilderment on Lily's face. Quietly, she had told you she was muggle-born. You couldn't have cared less and immediately begun to explain all the different magical sweets and chocolates on the trolley. You could still envision Lily's face when you told her about acid pops, and you only vaguely remembered Severus Snape sitting and glaring at you as Lily and yourself chatted. Ten minutes later your family friend James Potter came into the compartment looking for you. He had demonstrated a new shoe-lace tying spell he was dying to try out. The only problem was that he tied the laces of both your shoes together so you couldn't walk. You had drawn your wand and begun loudly arguing with James when Sirius Black had burst in and opened a tin of sugared butterfly wings. The butterflies swarmed the tiny compartment, flying towards the glass window to seek freedom. You had tried to run but fallen straight onto your face, forgetting that your shoe laces were tied together. James had almost wet himself laughing. The startled butterflies and prankster boys had really gotten on Lily's wick. She and Snape got up and moved to a different carriage, leaving you to deal with James and Sirius.

Despite that eventful first train ride you had easily become friends with Lily and the other Gryffindor girls.

When you entered the train compartment this afternoon you weren't surprised to see Snape sitting inside with Lily.

You closed the door behind you and gave your friend a huge smile. Lily hadn't grown much over the summer. You noticed she was still a few inches shorter than yourself when she stood up to hug you. Her long dark red hair was tied back in a low ponytail and she had already changed into her maroon school robes.

You shifted your gaze from your friend to the boy sitting in the corner of the carriage with shoulder length black hair. Judging from the way he was looking at you Snape was utterly displeased by your presence. Unscathed, you greeted him as well. Not only did he not return your greeting but he diverted his eyes to the ground and avoided your forced smile. You weren't going to pretend to be friends with Snape but you weren't going to be rude to him either.

The compartment door slid open before anyone could say anything and you turned to look at the newcomer. It was Nala, another fourth year Gryffindor who shared the same dormitory as you. Nala was tall and slender with black hair, dark skin, and a fabulous smile.

She gave you a hard and friendly clap on the shoulder. “It’s bloody chaos out there,” she said. Unlike you, Nala sat herself down straight away and ignored Snape. “First years everywhere and Alice has already gone and lost her pet toad…”

“Every year… She needs to keep the damn thing in a cage before it ends up in a jar in Slughorn's storage cupboard." Nala gave a snort of laughter at your joke.

Lily grimaced. She was by far the most compassionate of the Gryffindor girls. “Poor Alice. She doesn't have a lot of luck. Here, come sit down,” Lily offered, gesturing at yourself.

Lily and Snape were sitting next to eat other on one seat and Nala had sat down opposite Lily. The only free seat was opposite the moody Slytherin who was deliberately staring out the window, uninterested in the conversation and company. You squeezed past your friends knee's to sit down across from Snape.

“I can't believe we’re supposed to start preparing for our O.W.L's this year. Even though they're not 'til the end of next year," Nala said with a moan of despair. She lounged out on her seat, proping her feet up inbetween Snape and Lily. Snape gave her knacked pair of converse a distasteful look and budged over closer to the window.

Nala was not the academic sort and spent most of her time practicing Quidditch. Her shoes were permanently muddy and you could bet by October she would have grass stains on her robes. Although you didn't play Quidditch you got along well with Nala because you weren't very studious either. Certainly not as studious as Lily. You weren't looking forward to sitting your O.W.L.s. It would cut into your leisure time.

“Two years of misery for a measly two week examination period at the end of next year,” you contributed to the conversation. “It’s so dull, memorising all same old spells. Imagine if we got to create a new spell instead and they marked us on that!”

Snape's face remained positioned to stare outside but he gave you a side wards glance, his eyes studying your face briefly. A small sign of interest was apparent. It was as though he wanted to say something but held back. After a couple of moments passed without a word spoken you decided that he wasn't going to say anything after all.

“Perhaps you could create a new quill that knows all the answers,” Nala suggested.

“Don't be daft; they have anti-cheating quills that we all have to use," Lily said.

"What about this - you could create a disease, one so bad that you'd be stuck in the Hospital Wing for two weeks. Then you'd have more time to study." You smiled wickedly at Nala, watching Lily roll her eyes. "No, it'd be completely painless, but bad enough to give me more cramming time before the exams."

“Or you could actually spend more time preparing for the exams instead of hanging out with Potter and Black. In fact the amount of time you spend with them I'm surprised you haven't been sent to Mungo's for treatment of insanity," Lily said coldly. At her comment the corner of Snape's lips turned upwards.

As a Gryffindor you were friendly to most students unless they had deliberately done something bad to you (then they were fair game). Your friendship with Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew really just reflected the similarities you shared with them, such as a bad habit of breaking the rules and playing tricks on people. You loved roaming around Hogwarts trying to find secret passage ways and shortcuts around the school.

You sat up in your seat, ready to reason with Lily. “They’re not that bad. You're forgetting James topped Transfiguration last year as well.” You got the feeling that the subject of James and Sirius was a touchy subject for both Lily and Snape.

No matter how well James performed in class, Lily thought he was stupid because of the amount of pranks he pulled. Of course, his big-headedness and arrogance didn't particularly win him any favours either. And Snape? Well it was public knowledge that Slytherins and Gryffindors were rivals. It was a sort of default setting. Whenever teachers and prefects weren’t around there always seemed to be some sort of taunting going on between the two houses. You always thought that Snape was probably jealous of James and Sirius as they were very popular and gifted with great social skills and good looks, as well as being talented with their wands.

That assumed you had never really spoken to Snape to make this judgment. He never spoke a word in class unless called upon and spent most of his time reading alone or talking under his breath to Lily in the library. To someone with no knowledge on the situation it could be fairly assumed that the disagreements were nothing more than house rivalry and that James and Sirius picked on Snape because he didn’t take care of his appearance and had little social skills. That, and the fact that James and Sirius always seemed to get a rise out of him. Easy target, really.

Sensing that all the Potter talk had created tension you stood up and grabbed Nala's hand to pull her along with you. You graciously excused the two of you before James or Sirius came in looking for you and caused trouble. As you turned to tell Lily you’d see her at dinner you noticed Snape was looking at you with relief, clearly glad that he was granted alone time with Lily again.

 

\--

Due to amount of time you spent catching up with your male friends in the Gryffindor common room it was later than usual when you finally made it upstairs to the girl’s dormitory. Lily, Nala, and Alice were sitting cross legged on Nala’s bed flicking through a couple of muggle magazines Lily had brought from home. A couple of girls had drawn the curtains around their bed already, suggesting that they had called it a night.

As you unpacked your suitcase to look for your pajamas Nala came over to say goodnight. Nala had been a close friend of yours since first year. You knew you were going to get along with Nala because she was very outgoing and a tomboy. The minute you saw her hex a cocky first year Sirius Black for purposely knocking pumpkin juice on her skirt you knew you were going to be friends.

After Nala had gone to bed you went over to see Lily. You watched her put frames that held motionless pictures of her family on her bedside table. When she had first shown you a picture of her sister Petunia you had laughed. They looked completely opposite! Petunia had blonde hair and blue eyes, whereas Lily had red hair and green eyes. The only thing they had in common was how neatly presented they were. In the pictures their clothes were always ironed, hair brushed, and shoes polished. From what Lily told you about Petunia she didn't sound like the type of person you'd be friends with.

You interrupted Lily's decorating. “Hey, Lil. This morning on the train... I'm really sorry about..." You fidgeted with your pajama button. "Did I intrude on your conversation with Snape?"

Lily placed a vase of flowers down and turned to look at you. "Not at all. You know that's how Sev is. He's always been like that. It'd do him good, actually, to speak to more people." Lily always had some reason to defend Snape. She paused for a moment. "I've been thinking. If you spent a bit more time with Sev then maybe that'd do him some good. And," she added quickly, "If you're friends with him too then maybe Potter and Black would leave him alone!"

Lily knew you felt bad that Snape got picked on. But you also knew that Snape always retaliated and the spells he sent to James and Sirius were ten times worse than the hexes they knew. Snape wasn't completely innocent.

"If you got to know him then you'd realise he's nothing like Potter!"

"I think you're forgetting that _I'm_ not the one who has an issue with James..."

"I know... but Sev is so different - "

"Ok, ok. It's fine. He can't be that bad, can he? He's never really done anything to me so…” you trailed off, shrugging your shoulders.

Lily looked relieved. You wondered how long this had been on her mind. “Really?," she said. "Well tomorrow come by the Great Lake after class and then the three of us can …hang out.” She went to smile, though stopped midway to contemplate her sentence. Her eyes flashed as she had just remembered something. “Although, for… for Severus’s sake - could you not mention that I asked you to be his friend? And of course don't let Potter or Black know either. I would hate for them to - "

“Lil, stop! I've got it. It's our secret. I’ll get to know Snivellus- ” You quickly covered your mouth and your eyes bulged. “I mean Severus,” you corrected yourself. You’d have to make sure to get that nickname out of your head before tomorrow afternoon. “It'll be fun," you said to convince yourself.

Right now you were a tiny bit motivated by this years mission: getting to know Snape. On occasion you had wondered why Lily was friends with him. Besides, everyone knew Snape was clever. Perhaps for the sake of your O.W.Ls you’d gain a potions tutor!


	2. 4th Year - The Conference

**September, 1974**

  
“I WISH I was as CHARMING as you, my love,” Sirius Black bellowed. There was no reason for him to yell because he had already gained enough attention by standing up on his wooden seat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

In your opinion it was far too early in the morning for Sirius’s shenanigans and you had to bow you head in discomfiture as he leant down to grab your hand. You swatted him away with a scowl, mumbling to knock it off so you could continue eating your toast. Rejection only seemed to encourage him.

Sirius knelt down beside you now trying to cup your face in his hands. You continued to dodge his touch. “Your beauty is so distracting that I can’t finish my breakfast without letting EVERYONE know how I feel!”

Lily, who was sat opposite you, shot Sirius a nasty scowl and you silently vowed that today would be the last time you made her sit near the troublesome foursome for a while. A group of second year girls sitting further down the table watched Sirius’s display of affection anxiously as though he was going to ask you to be his girlfriend any minute and crush their little hearts.

“All I ask is that you let me gaze upon your beauty for the rest of my lifetime... If I could place one kiss upon – OW” Sirius swore under his breath when your elbowed him hard in the ribs. He bounced back, standing up on the bench again. “I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to date the best-looking, smartest, funniest person in this school.... _after myself,_ " he added under his breath and then paused again to create suspense. He jumped down off the bench and grabbed the person on his other side. “Oh James Potter! Will you give me a chance!?”

Sirius beamed when he seized James around the shoulders and pinched his cheeks. A couple of people snorted into their morning pumpkin juice and the spectating females returned to their morning patter once they had realised for the tenth time that Sirius Black was not interested in you, nor you him. It was all a terribly bad ploy to get Lily to see how desirable James was. This was one of the worst attempt's they had come up with. The lads must have only come up with this one late last night in an early attempt to see if Lily still hated James this year as she’d hated him all the years before. When Lily stood up in a huff and stormed out of the Great Hall you all figured she definitely still hated James.

You rolled your eyes as the anti-climax. “Very funny, boys,” you commented through a mouthful of toast.

Sirius turned his grin towards you. “Well you’re not bad, [Name], but who wouldn’t want to go out with James? They’d have to be a complete idiot.”

“ _Not bad_ … thanks Sirius.”

“I’m not downgrading from James to you,” Sirius said solemnly.

You rolled your eyes again. “Guess the size of your wand does matter…”

Sirius smirked. “Nah, I’ve seen James’s and -“

“Yep, I’m definitely done here.” You threw your last piece of toast down onto the gold plate. The boys chuckled as you made your way out of the Hall.

Your early departure from breakfast made you ten minutes early to your first History of Magic lesson of the year. You were never early to class unless you walked with Lily. Lily never waited to walk with you because she had learnt the hard way that you usually left it til the last minute to get to your next class. Lily wondered how you always managed to make it just on time. She didn't know all the shortcuts and secret passageways around Hogwarts like you did.

You took a seat next to Lily when you arrived. Sirius must have really annoyed her this morning because not even Lily would sit in Professor Binns's musty smelling classroom for longer than she had to. You jutted your head towards the only other person in the room besides from Professor Binns. The boy had dark brown curly hair that fell into his face when he leant over his notebook. You recognised him from some of your other classes.

“Who’s he again?” you whispered. “Henry? Harold?”

Lily gave you an obvious look. “That's Tristan Roux. He's a Ravenclaw.”

When the bell rang for the class to begin Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter entered, clearly unaware of the time as James had a piece of toast in his hand and his uniform was already unkempt.

Much to Lily’s disapproval Sirius sat down in front of you. He immediately leant back in his chair. “Did you miss me?"

You pushed the back of his chair forward. "Like hell I did."

The banging of Sirius's chair woke up Professor Binns who began today's lesson on the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.

Ten minutes into the lesson Sirius leant back on his chair once again. "I always enjoy a nap first thing in the morning," he said with a disgruntled look at Professor Binns.

You snorted in response. Lily glared at you and made an effort to sit up straight and reshuffle her books. How she could sit through Binns' droning was beyond you. You had to hand it to her, she paid attention in every class and as a result all the teachers loved her. 

When Lily wasn't looking you grimaced at Sirius, sharing his boredom. It was a going to be a long first day.

 

\--

 

By 4pm that same day you were happy to leave the Hogwarts castle and go outside, even if it meant that you had to impress a certain Slytherin that surely would not want impressing. You physically relaxed when you saw Lily walking towards you, grateful that she didn’t leave you to find Snape by yourself. You weren’t ready to initiate and drive a conversation with him without her help.

“Thanks for coming,” Lily puffed. She probably thought you were going to flake on your plan. Wherever they had been sitting must have been far away because Lily sounded out of breath. She pointed to a large oak tree all the way at the other side of the lake. "We're over there. I told him I'd forgotten a book in the library," she explained. 

_Great._ Your company was that unwanted that Lily had to lie about what she was doing. 

As you grew nearer to the tree you saw Snape sitting underneath it. His black cloak was on the ground next to him and his shirt was rolled up at the sleeves. His black shoulder length hair made a curtain around his face and although it was as disheveled as Sirius’ you got the impression that Snape kept his hair this way so he could hide behind it rather than use it to his advantage like Sirius did. 

“Hey Sev,” Lily spoke as the pair of you approached. To your surprise her voice sounded timid. She must be as nervous as you were. “You remember [Name], don’t you?”

Snape wouldn't allow his eyes to leave his book. He had been looking forward to spending the afternoon with Lily. _Why did she feel the need to bring along this stupid girl?_ Snape did not appreciate feeling uncertain, especially when the person causing this uncertainty was his only friend. Did Lily not appreciate the time that they spent – alone – together?

Of course Snape knew who you were. You were [First Name] [Surname]. You were popular, a pure-blood, and a Gryffindor. And most of all, you were _annoying._ Anyone could tell how foolish you were by the display you put on this morning in the Great Hall with Black. Did Lily really expect him to give someone like _you_ a second of his precious time? Why should he invest his time in someone who enjoyed spending their time with people like Potter and Black? Why should he lower his standards to someone as stupid, dull, and obnoxiously proud as you were?

_He did not want to be bothered by someone like you._

Snape watched you sit down on the grass and to his relief you looked quite uncomfortable. Maybe you’d leave soon. You began to plait little yellow flowers into a bracelet.

His thoughts were broken when Lily’s soft voice echoed through the silence.

“How has your day been, Sev?”

Snape met Lily’s eyes and saw what looked like hope – hope that he’d approve her friend to join them, he guessed.

He found it hard to be cruel to Lily. “Uneventful,” he answered slowly. His eyes returned to his book without asking Lily how her day was.

She tried again. “Did you manage to stay awake during Divination?”

If making people feel uncomfortable was a skill then Severus Snape was without a doubt very talented in that division, you thought. Admittedly, it had taken you a few years to be able to carry a conversation with members of the opposite sex and even now you wouldn’t call yourself an expert at it. Growing up with James had certainly helped. In all of the friendships you maintained you were used to sharing laughter, smiles and jokes - and not just with boys. You didn’t want Snape’s attitude to suffocate your personality. You knew you should never let a man get the best of you. 

You peered over the top of the book Snape was reading. You pulled the top bit back towards you to get a better look. Snape’s eyes rushed up to meet yours. He looked so angry that you were taken aback.

“Sorry. I was just making sure there were no naked ladies in your book,” you joked with a stone-faced shrug. 

“I assure you there is not,” he replied through clenched teeth. This was the first time he had spoken directly to you, despite him looking at Lily as if to say _‘is this some kind of joke?’_

“That’s a relief. Although I have been into the restricted section of the library a few times and some of the drawings in those books – “

Lily interrupted you before you could embarrass yourself further. “Severus enjoys reading books from the restricted section. Books about spell making.” 

You could tell Lily was desperately trying to change the subject as subtly as possible. “Oh. Definitely no naked ladies in books about spell making." Your attempts at humour were not met with any signs of amusement from Lily or Severus. _Miserable gits._ “I should get going. I’ve – uh – got to visit the... library?” You mentally slapped yourself on the forehead for your awkward behaviour.

“NO!” Lily cried, startling Snape so much that he was forced to look up from his book again. She pulled you aside behind another tree, clutching your arm and whispering frantically. “What the hell was that!?"

"What! I was trying to make a joke!"

Lily was obviously annoyed but also realised that she couldn't argue because she needed you. "Alright, sorry. He's not much of a talker at first."

“At first?” you repeated sarcastically. “This is like some horrible blind date! It’s crystal clear that he doesn't like me!" 

Lily’s face reddened, clashing unattractively with her hair. “It’s not like that at all and I've told you, he's like that with everyone!"

"No wonder he has no friends!"

"[Name] - "

You sighed. Your temper had gotten the best of you and you had said something hurtful. "Ok, Lil. I'm sorry. I promise I'll give it another go another day." Lily's expression softened with relief. "Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to head back to the Tower to a few boys who I know WILL be ogling naked ladies.” You smiled fondly at the memory of catching Sirius and Remus flicking through some of Lily’s muggle magazines at the girls in their bikinis.

Lily returned to Snape, sighing in disappointment. “Sorry about that…”

“It doesn’t matter,” he responded monotonously. Now that you weren’t there he finally put away his book and looked at Lily. “I need to get back to the common room now anyway.”

His feelings for Lily had always been unclear and confusing but Snape knew one thing – she was the only friend he needed.

 


	3. 4th Year - Detention

**December, 1974**

It was the last week of classes until the Christmas holidays and months had now passed by since your first real interaction with the formidable Snape. You guessed when you had said you'd give it a go 'another day' you really meant 'next year'. Surprisingly Lily hadn't really bothered you about meeting up with Snape again. If she was anything like you then she was probably still traumatised from the first interaction. That day still played back in your mind whenever you saw Snape. You could not believe he had been that unfriendly and cold, even after you had tried to lighten the mood and joke with him! The strangest part of all this was that it was still such a big deal to you. You had enough friends that Snape’s acceptance wasn’t that important… but you were too much of a big head to believe that Snape didn't like you. He just had to give you a chance.

Thinking about this as you filed into the potions classroom you felt a sudden need to impress the moody Slytherin. A swell of Gryffindor courage washed over you, telling you to be brave and sit in Lily's usual seat next to Snape.

Snape glared at you. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed.

“I can sit wherever I want,” you answered him back.

Snape turned his face away, not happy that you had refused to move. You knew that this week Slughorn had students pairing up and that students chose who they wanted to work with by sitting together. That meant Snape would have to talk to you. After Slughorn had spoken about the use of the Hair-Raising Potion and what ingredient you would need the practical part of the lesson commenced. You turned to Snape, trying to get a glimpse of his face from behind his curtain of dark hair.

“So! How would you like me to help today?” You made an effort to sound chirpy and positive.

Snape continued setting up his ingredients without giving you a glance. “You can’t."

“I object!” You felt yourself starting to get mad over the rejection. “I’ve read over this potion about 17 times. That may be 30 times less than you’ve read it but it’s still a hell of a lot of times!”

Snape gave you a side wards glance as he gracefully sliced the rats tails into finer pieces. You crossed your arms over your chest and huffed. After a minute of being ignored you tried a new approach.

You peered over his shoulder. “How do you do that?” Every slice was exactly the same. He was really good at this. No wonder he didn't trust you to help.

Another 3 minutes passed with your questions unanswered until Snape finally caved and put a jar of porcupine quills and his textbook down in front of you. “Count them out," he commanded, pointing at the jar.

“Yes master,” you replied, sounding more sarcastic that you intended to.

The uncomfortable silence made the hour of potion making seem much longer than usual. Snape was uneasy with letting you touch the potion and would often stop what he was doing just to snap directions at you. Yet once the potion was complete you actually stood back to admire your team work. Slughorn was pleased with the potion (and your good behaviour this lesson) and had given you each five House points.

“You're amazing!” you gushed when the class was over. “That’s the quickest I’ve ever seen anyone make a potion without stuffing anything up.”

Snape glimpsed at you with little intrigue. “If you paid attention you’d realise it was nothing.” He cleared the workstation with a flick of his wand and stormed out of the classroom.

In his haste he had left behind the book that he had given you to work out of. It was the prescribed text for the class though as you worked from it you had noticed that some instructions had been crossed and new ones were written in their place. Snape must spend a lot of time practicing and studying. No wonder he got along with Lily. _They were both nerds._

You flung your backpack over your shoulder and left the classroom. You could see Snape looking like a black haze heading towards the library. “OI, Snape! Wait up!” You noticed that he came to an abrupt halt and his hand went straight into his pocket to grab his wand.

Some students began slowing down their pace to nosey in on the conversation.

“What do you want?” Snape barked when he realised it was you. It wasn’t often that he heard his name being called out in the corridors by a female. He was glad to see that you weren’t accompanied by Black and Potter.

You held out his book. “You left this in the classroom.”

Snape inspected the book briefly before he snatched it out of your hands without a thank you. He turned on his heel and continued back towards the dungeons. The gathering students lost interest in the brief confrontation and got back to whatever it was there were doing prior.

You hated the fact that Snape was picked on. But you were starting to think that he really did live up to the Slytherin reputation of being nasty. How hard is it to say thank you? He probably thought it was your fault he left the book behind anyway…

  
\--

It was Christmas time and more than half of Hogwarts had gone home to spend the holidays with their family. You had stayed this year to keep Sirius company. The poor boy had been arguing with his parents all summer that had decided to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas rather than go home. Many people from your group had gone home as well so Sirius really was the only friend you had a Hogwarts during the break.

Sirius wrapped his arm around your shoulders as you walked through the snowy Hogwarts grounds. “We should sneak out to the kitchens tonight. Get something good to eat. I've got firewhiskey in my dorm as well."

You didn’t even ask how a fourteen year old would get their hands on alcohol - somehow Sirius always managed the impossible. “Sounds good. Do you think there will be many people in the common room?"

"Nah, we'll go late, about 11," Sirius said.

"Alright. I'm going to go see Professor Flitwick about that detention I've got. I reckon he'll let me off cuz it's Christmas."

"Unlikely. This is the third time he's caught you duelling," Sirius replied with a snort.

You turned and began walking backwards in the opposite direction to Sirius. "That's true, but he's secretly impressed by my wand work," you yelled down the corridor.

"Whatever you tell yourself," Sirius yelled back. You could make out his grin in the distance.

You turned to face the correct direction as you rounded the corner by turning inelegantly on your heel. Instead, you walked smack bang into someone’s chest. This caused you to lose your footing and wobble backwards. A cold hand hurriedly grabbed your shoulder to steady you and prevent you from landing on your arse. When you were completely steadied you went to thank your helper and were surprised to see that you were looking into the dark eyes of Severus Snape.

His hand remained on your elbow and a few silent moments passed. As though he had just caught onto himself, he frantically dropped his hand to his side and began to walk away. Before he could make another quick exit you called his name and grabbed his wrist.

He pulled away from you and spoke before you had the chance. “Watch where you’re going,” he barked, conveying his disapproval in a nasty look before sweeping down the corridor.

\--

Sirius sloppily tried to cover your mouth as you stiffened a giggled. Your mouth was crammed with sugary food. You had already had a swig of firewhiskey back in the common room before leaving to celebrate getting out of detention with Flitwick.

The two of you escaped from the kitchens and began the dark walk back to the Gryffindor common room.

“Shhhhhh,” Sirius snorted, food falling from his mouth when you stumbled around the corner gracelessly, trying not to laugh.

Then suddenly you stopped giggling. “Wait," you whispered. Sirius walked into the arm that you had stuck out to stop him from going any further. “Did you hear that?” You pulled out your wand just in case it was Peeves creeping up on you.

It was definitely footsteps you heard, ruling out Peeves. You didn't have time to hide before you heard the person whisper ‘lumos’, their wand now brightening the corridor.

“I knew it.” Snape’s voice was full of malice. He had a nasty looking sneer on his face. “Gryffindor won’t mind losing a few house points, will they?”

You were shocked. Since this afternoon when he had stopped you from falling over you had begun to consider whether or not you should be friendlier to the Slytherin. But here he was eavesdropping on your conversations and following you around the school trying to get you into trouble.

Sirius had stopped smiling now and had his wand out as well. “Before you do anything I’ll have you hexed so hard you’ll wish you never saw us,” he snarled.

“I’d like to see you try, Black,” Snape replied through clenched teeth. “Not as cocky now without your partner in crime,” he said silkily, circling the pair of you like a shark.

It was your turn to try and soothe the situation. “Come on, you can’t –“

“Can’t what? Stop you?” Snape argued. “You walk around the school as though the rules apply to everyone but yourselves – “

“Um, are you forgetting that you are also breaking the rules right now? You're out after curfew as well!” You looked at him as though he was insane, though the urgency in your voice probably made you sound equally so.

Sirius gave your hand a squeeze. “Let’s go, [Name]. We don’t need to waste our time with greasy gits like him,” he said, staring at Snape with disdain.

You winced at Sirius’ choice of words – surely this wouldn’t make the situation any better.

Snape’s wand was immediately raised and thrust towards Sirius’ face. “Langlock.”

The jinx was unfamiliar to yourself and you were unsure what affects it had until Sirius tried to speak. It seemed as though the spell had glued his mouth shut. Interesting - you hadn’t heard or read about that spell before. Snape must have created it. How clever.

You quickly shook those thoughts from your head and turned back to your friend. “Sirius? Are you ok?” You waved a hand in front of his handsome face and turned to Snape. “What have you done?” you demanded, your wand raised, though eyes pleading with him.

“What is going on here?” An unimpressed Professor McGonagall had caught the three of you and you weren’t surprised with the amount of time you had spent arguing in the corridor. “Well, come on then, out with it!”

Suddenly, Sirius seemed to be able to speak again and he sucked in a great deal of air, as though he had just played a two day Quidditch match. “It was S-snivellus,” he panted.

McGonagall served Sirius a disapproving look at his choice in nicknames.

“He’s lying,” Snape spat back. “He’s lying, Professor.” His voice was earnest now, as though he had suddenly realised what you had said before – he was also breaking the rules just as much as you were.

You smirked, suddenly glad that Snape would get into trouble as well. Served him right. He shouldn’t stick his nose into other peoples business.

“Enough, Snape. [Surname], would you care to shed any light on the situation? Or should I just save myself the trouble and hand out your detentions now?”

You knew there was no excuse for your behaviour, so there was no point lying. “I think Snape was trying to get us expelled,” you mumbled, shooting him a disgruntled look.

He returned your irritated look with ease. “I’m sure you’re capable of doing that yourself,” he retorted spitefully, crossing his arms.

McGonagall sighed and shook her head in disappointment. “Ten house points from each of you and detention tomorrow, Filch’s office at seven. And to think - I’m handing out detentions at Christmas.”

“Professor, you don’t understand,” Snape pleaded.

“Bed, now!” McGonagall’s voice turned harsh. “And if I catch any of you out of your respective common rooms again, you will be in a lot more trouble, believe me!”

Snape stormed down the hallway, positively fuming.

"And Black - consider yourself lucky that I am not confiscating those jam donuts off you as well!" McGonagall threatened, but you could've sworn you saw her thin lips quirk into a small smile.

You stole a glance from Sirius and began making your way back to the Gryffindor common room. “Snape is such a git! What’s his problem?” you wondered out loud, shaking your head.

“I’m telling you, he’s just a big nosed freak who wants to make everyone else’s life miserable because his own is so pathetic.”

You didn’t say it out loud, but you hoped what Sirius said wasn't true.

 --

The next night the Sirius and yourself trudged to Filch’s office to find a resentful-looking Snape waiting outside, his eyes fixed on a book that he held up to his face. You were too bitter, too annoyed, and too tired to even acknowledge him right now, and besides - what did you owe him? Filch gave the three of you the task of cleaning the halls and provided you each with a mop and bucket.

"I'm going up to corridor 4A, you guys can do corridors 1 - 3," Sirius told you. You saw him tap his cloak pocket and you realised what he meant.

Filch had forgotten to take your wands off you. You could clean the corridors with a flick of your wand. Sirius was going to go up to floor 4, magic the floor clean, and then use the escape passage behind the gargoyle to get back to the Gryffindor common room. However you couldn't go with him because then Snape would tell Filch. It would be your job to spend the evening with Snape.

You scowled at Sirius. You loved him like a brother but he certainly reminded you that most brothers were irritating. Then again it was probably better if Sirius and Snape didn't spend anymore time around each other. Someone would end up dead.

Snape was pulling his bucket to the opposite side of the corridor when you cleared your throat to capture his attention. You pulled your wand out of your cloak pocket.

"Scourgify." The floorboards shone so brightly after you cast the cleaning spell you could see your own reflection in them.

“You’re not supposed to use magic,” Snape scorned.

“And Filch was supposed to take our wands from us, but sometimes things don’t work out as you planned,” you answered bitterly.

Snape stood awkwardly at the other end of the corridor.

“You could thank me?”

He glared. “If it wasn’t for _you_ , I wouldn’t be here.”

“If it wasn’t for YOU, I wouldn’t be here,” you snapped back.

“You’re careless.”

“And you're a nosey prat."

You didn’t mean to sound like Sirius or James and you instantly regretted your remark. You decided you should change the subject.

“Why didn’t you go home for Christmas?” you asked, watching him lean his back against the stone wall.

“My parents would be there.”

It almost sounded like a joke as he avoided the question.

“Ah. Yes, that’s usually the problem when you live with your parents," you quipped.

So Snape didn’t get on with his parents? Perhaps that's why he had turned out... how he had turned out. You got along with your parents... when you saw them. They worked all the time and you remember being left at the Potter's a lot as a child. Once you had started at Hogwarts your parents had decided you were responsible enough to be left home alone, which you often were.

The conversation stopped and you decided to go and join Snape down the other side of the corridor where you could continue to 'chat' from a closer distance. You had almost made it the whole way when you reached a particularly wet part of the floor. Your feet slipped and you scrambled to steady yourself on the wall.

Snape's arm shot out to grab you for the second time that week. You let go of the grip you had on him and took a step back.

“You should've stayed where you were. You caused a lot less trouble from over there," he said.

When you looked at his face, a smirk played on his lips. He wasn’t actually being cruel this time, he was teasing you.

For now, you were going to take this as an apology for last night, a thank you for 'cleaning' the floors and a subtle hint at perhaps, mutually not hating each other.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys im soooo sorry that I haven't updated in ages. The reason behind it is that my laptop died. Thankfully they were able to retrieve all my data but im using my mini tablet & keyboard to write this fic now and im not going to lie it's a bloody mess.
> 
> So I hope this long chapter makes up for the delay! Let me know what you think x


	4. 4th Year - Valentine's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OoooOOOooo look at you Reader getting yourself a hot date!
> 
> Thank you guys for your reviews & kudos <3

**February, 1975**

On this particular morning the Great Hall was filled with paper chains of pink hearts dangling along the walls. Glitter sprinkled softly from the ceiling down onto the dining tables. All House colours had been replaced by pink tableclothes and a harp was magically playing a romantic melody down the front of the hall. Valentine’s Day seemed to have approached quicker than usual this year. It's not that you were upset that you were single, it was more just the fact that you didn't like watching other couples sticking their tongues down each other’s throats during breakfast. On Valentine's Day you had to allow it.

You took a seat next to Lily at the Gryffindor table and instantly noticed something was wrong. Her eyes kept shooting around the Hall and she was hunched over her bowl, her nose almost grazing the cereal. In one hand was her spoon, the other her wand. The girl was obviously paranoid that James would embarrass and mortify her as he had done the years before.

Minding your own business, you batted away a cupid that was hovering around you head and scoffed down some pink scrambled eggs. You weren't sure why Dumbledore thought dying all the food pink was romantic, but you weren't going to argue with Dumbledore. Lily begged you to skip second breakfast and accompany her to History of Magic. You knew she was still terrified of seeing James.

You had an uneventful walk to class and took your usual seat next to the blue eyed Ravenclaw whose name you had forgotten. For the first time he actually turned to speak to you.

“Apparently I’m supposed to be a fan of today,” the boy spoke to you.

You laughed, acknowledging his French accent. “Oh, not living up to your romantic expectations?"

He shrugged with a sly grin on his face. “We French are very romantic, but I can’t seem to get the girl I fancy to go on a date with me.”

“That’s no good. We can’t have you disgracing your people like that, can we? Perhaps I could persuade her for you?” You offered spinning your wand in between your fingers.

“Or perhaps you could say yes…?” he said with a little grin.

“Yes? To what?”

The boy chuckled nervously. “Yes to going on a date with me, of course.” He ran a hand shyly through his bouncing locks.

“Who, me? But I don’t even know your name!” You immediately cringed at your, erm, 'faux par'. Luckily the boy laughed.

“My name is Tristan. Tristan Roux, Ravenclaw, and just in case you didn’t know, I’m a 4th year.” You tried to give him your name which he dismissed with a wave of his hand and a light laugh. “Of course I know who you are!”

Professor Binns floated into the classroom and began the lesson with his usual monotonous drone. Breaking off two pieces of parchment, you grabbed your quill and wrote a note to Nala and Lily.

_'Guess who has a Valentine?'_

The 2 pieces parchment flew back to you instantly and knew whose response was whose which by the handwriting.

 _'Who is the poor sod?'_ –Nala

 _'_ _Don’t talk to me about boys. They’re insufferable.'_ – Lily

You picked up your quill and scribbled a response back to Nala. _'The LUCKY bloke is the rather attractive Ravenclaw I’m sitting next to.’_

With a flick of your wand you sent the parchment behind you to find Nala, deciding Lily was probably not in the mood to discuss men.

Strangely, you didn’t get a response from Nala for the rest of the lesson. When the class ended you got up to see if she had fallen asleep during class.

Before you could make an exit Tristan grabbed your hand. “Can I meet you at Hogsmede this weekend?” His eyes lit up when you nodded yes and agreed upon a time.

Out in the corridor you pushed through the bodies to get to Nala but found yourself blocked by Snape. He pushed a piece of crumpled parchment into your hand.

“I believe this is yours,” he said with a sneer. He left with a swirl of his black cape before you could respond.

You looked down at the piece of parchment he’d given you; finding out that it was your conversation with Nala about Tristan. _Oh Merlin’s pants, how embarrassing._

\--

Spring was well and truly in the air and your step. You made the most of your trip to Hogsmede on Saturday window shopping with Nala and Alice. You couldn't afford much, but when the three of you combined what little was left of your Christmas money you could afford a rather large bag of sweets from Honeydukes. As the day drew on, you had to leave your friends to begin your date with Tristan. You waited outside Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop feeling nervous. You'd never been on a date before!

When Tristan arrived he greeted you fondly with a kiss on the cheek. His friendliness instantly put you at ease. You entered the small cafe together and Tristan pulled out your chair before you sat down. You were not used to this sort of male chivalry. James and Sirius would wrestle you for the last seat and Peter would take it without even thinking. Remus was probably the closest male you knew that could pass as a gentleman, and even he wouldn’t pull out your seat for you.

Tristan ordered some tea and rested his head in his hands. “So really, I don’t know that much about you.”

“At least you knew my name," you grimaced, still remembering your stupid outburst. "And now I know yours. You’re no longer just the cute Ravenclaw that I sit next to in History of Magic.

Tristan grinned at your comment.

“There’s not much to know about me. I don’t have a lot of secrets… but I’ll let you in on one.” You paused; taking a sip of tea and watching your date lean forward in anticipation. “One secret is that I’m a… witch,” you finished with a dramatic sigh.

Tristan chuckled and pretended to ponder your confession. “Hmm, in that case I've got a secret too. I only really like girls who have two eyes, a nose and a mouth and go by the name [Name].”

You laughed. “You’re very picky.”

The rest of the date went well by your standards. The conversation flowed naturally and you found yourself beginning to enjoy flirting with him. In fact, you began to find yourself falling a bit too quickly.

“Can I see you again?” Tristan asked outside Madam Puddifoot's before you went your separate ways.

You smiled, feeling your heart becoming warm with excitement. “Of course. I'll see you in History of Magic on Monday. That should be romantic." You flashed him a grin and which he matched. You knew he was trying to ask you on a second date.

"That sounds perfect," he joked. "And then maybe next weekend we could come to Hogsmede again?"

"Sure." You gave his hand a squeeze of reassurance that you enjoyed your date. "I told my friends to meet me outside at 4pm." You checked your wristwatch.

"In that case you don't mind if I have a look in Dervish and Banges?"

"Not at all."

Tristan took your hand in his, bringing your knuckles up to his lips and placing a light kiss on them.

You stood like an idiot on your tip toes watching him depart until he was out of view. As soon as he was too far away to see anymore you gave yourself a dorky high-five by holding one hand up in the air and slapping it with your other. Unfortunately, Snape walked past just in time to catch you in full blown 'loser' mode. He stopped for a moment to look at you.

“I had a good date," you explained.

“Sounds like a waste of time,” he replied fairly coolly for someone whose mouth had twitched in amusement a second ago.

“Do you deny yourself of all happiness, or do you just really hate me?”

Snape scowled at you and began walking away.

You ran up to him and quickened your pace to keep up. “Are you excited that there’s only a few months of school left?”

“No.”

“Ok , That was a bad question,” you said, remembering that he didn’t get along with his parents. “What’re you doing in Hogsmede?”

“Nothing.”

“How exciting!" you said sarcastically.

Snape halted and perked a dark eyebrow. “I’ve got to go.” He hurried away, leaving you still standing out the front of the café.

“Bye?”

Snape made you feel like you were completely clueless about the male species with his odd behaviour. This frustrated you because you knew you certainly weren't clueless about men! You spent a lot of your time with the marauders and had just had a successful date with a Ravenclaw! James and Sirius could get moody, arrogant and rude on occasion but you understood that this was because they were probably in a bad mood – perhaps they had gotten detention or a prank had been carried out unsuccessfully. Thankfully James no longer got cranky after receiving an insult from Lily. The frequency of the insults had made him toughen up.

So why was Snape always angry and unpleasant?

\--

That evening in the girls dormitory you approached Lily.

“Hey, Lil,” you said, causing her to look up from her book. “I was just wondering ...why do you like Snape?”

Lily lifted an eyebrow. She put her book face down on her bed. “Why do I like him?” she repeated, pausing to think. “I like him because he’s not a loud-mouthed big head.”

“ _So you like him because he’s not James?_ There are plenty of decent guys at Hogwarts; I just don’t understand what it is about Snape that makes him so... special. Every time I speak to him it seems like he’d rather be stuck in a tank of Grindelows.” You sighed and plopped yourself down on Lily's bed. You were about ready to admit that you'd fail this little mission.

“Oh he’s like that with everyone; you just have to be persistent. I’ve told you he’s not a big talker but he's always been so kind to me. When we were children he explained all about Hogwarts to me... It was so much easier to begin school here with a friend... I'll admit he has a cold exterior and I really appreciate all the effort you've put in this year." She wrinkled her brows again. “Perhaps I could put in a good word for you?”

You laughed for the first time during the conversation. “A good word about me? Lil, you’d have to write a very, very convincing essay… 3000 word minimum!” you retorted, triggering the two of you into a giggling fit.


	5. 4th Year - Another Chance

**June, 1975**

The fourth year at Hogwarts had come to an end and you were ready to board the Hogwarts Express. Your friends had gone ahead to secure the last carriage for the trip. You were standing in the train corridor with Tristan, saying your farewells before the long summer break where he would be holidaying in France with his family.

“I will write to you and we can arrange to meet up in London before school starts,” he promised and rested his forehead against yours. You kissed him tenderly and bid him farewell, watching him join the other Ravenclaws.

You made your way to the last compartment and slid the door open to find that it was empty. You guessed that James had chased the Lily away and then followed her elsewhere. She'd be back. You made yourself comfortable and pulled out a book to read whilst you waited. A few minutes later the door opened again and it was Snape, not Lily, that stood gazing at you. He made to slide the door shut in hope that you hadn't noticed his arrival.

You had noticed and you called out to him. “You can sit here if you’d like.”

He hesitated with his hand still on the door handle before stepping inside and closing the door behind him. He sat in the seat furthest away from you and muttered something incoherent.

Your eyes were back on your book. “Yeah, I’m not too excited about going home either,” you muttered back.

To your surprise Snape spoke again. "I hate going home."

You looked up from your book in surprise, noticing that his expression wasn't as menacing as usual and he looked glum. Your heart instantly felt for him in a sharp pang of sorrow. "I do too. My parents are at work all the time and I don't have any siblings."

Snape held your gaze and although he didn't say anything you could tell he wasn't adverse to conversation.

“My father works for the Ministry in publishing and my mother works at Mungo’s as a Healer,” you explained. “They both work really long hours. But because they're gone all the time then I can do what I want. It’s taught me to be independent."

Snape still didn’t offer any conversation though didn’t look bored so you continued talking. You hoped he didn’t think you were too self-centred.

“I don’t know what I’ll get up to this summer. Sometimes I go visit Lily. And I might get to see my boyfriend when he gets back from France." You purposely left out the part about going to see James. “Are you going to do anything interesting during the holidays?”

“No.”

You smiled. “That’s ok. I’m sure you’ll be happy I'm not there to annoy you," you joked.

Snape opened his mouth and you hoped he was going to inform you that you didn’t annoy him as much as you thought. His reply was interrupted by the compartment door gliding open with a bang. Sirius and James strolled in and Snape jumped up from his seat, drawing his wand.

“Calm down, Snivelly,” Sirius drawled. “I’m far too tired to mess with you today.”

You glared at the two newcomers - _did Sirius and James always have to be so threatening?_

“Besides, what are you doing in here with [Name]?” Sirius asked him, giving you an odd look.

“Nothing,” Snape answered harshly before pushing out of the carriage in a hurry.

James and Sirius shrugged and took a seat in the carriage. They really were too tired if they'd given up the opportunity to bully Snape.

Instead it was you who took off after Snape. You were disappointed that you had been disturbed just when you felt like you were actually having a somewhat normal conversation with the difficult Slytherin. You grabbed Snape's wrist and tugged at it to make him turn around.

He snatched his wrist out of your grasp and immediately drew his wand. “Don’t touch me,” he snarled. “I don’t need your company.”

“I’m trying to be nice to you! Why are you making it so hard for me, you bloody idiot!?”

Your choice of words caught you both off guard and you swore the look on Snape's face would've scared a Dementor.

When he spoke his tone was low, barely above a whisper. “I don’t know what you expect from me but _I am not interested in being your friend,_ " he hissed. 

Each word hit you individually and you blinked rapidly, trying to keep tears from your eyes. You weren’t going to be defeated. You didn’t give up on people that easily and you definitely didn’t let people get the best of you without a fair fight. Your head was whirling with different replies to Snape’s response. Your initial reaction in pure anger and spite was to repeat his own words back to him – _that you weren’t really interested in being friends with him either_. Fortunately, you knew saying that would be a mistake and you would regret it immediately.

You chose what you hoped was the more sensible option. “Well I’m not interested in quarreling,” you spoke calmly. "I like you, Severus."

And with that you returned to the last carriage on the Hogwarts Express.

\--

Snape’s body refused to move and it took a few minutes before your words fully sunk in. He pocketed his wand, ashamed of his actions. He couldn't figure out why you were being so damn nice to him. Emotions were something that Snape hated to deal with. And although he hated to admit it, you weren’t an idiot like he had first assumed.

On the other hand, you were friends with Potter and Black and had a knack for breaking the rules. Perhaps you had an ulterior motive and were scheming away with your friends in hope of making him look like a fool? He couldn't be sure. 

But surely he had done more than enough to show you that he wasn’t interested in being your friend without having to say it so blatantly like he had a moment ago. All he did was glare at you, ridicule you, and be downright mean to you. He had not done anything to entice your friendship yet here you were telling him that you liked him.

He swallowed, and instead of thinking that he should give you another chance, Snape hoped that _you_ would give _him_ another chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So youve made it to the end of your 4th year, congrats loves ! x


	6. 5th Year - A Potion's Tutor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys asked me about an update schedule and im sorry to say I dont have one! I will try to update once month - your lovely reviews spurred me on to get this chapter out early.
> 
> Enjoy x

**September, 1975**

Instead of heading to the last carriage to find Lily, this year you had a boyfriend and decided that you should find him first. It had been over two months since you had seen him as you never got the chance to meet up during the holidays. You had spent the majority of the holidays alone, you'd gotten to have a weekend sleepover at Lily's house, and your parents had begrudgingly allowed you to visit Sirius. The Black family was well known amongst wizarding families and your parents weren't exactly the biggest fans of that household. You were worried about Sirius so you had begged your parents to allow you to visit your friend. You'd last two whole days at Grimmauld Place. Kreacher had caught you cutting holes in Sirius's mothers socks and you and Sirius had been asked to leave. You decided to visit James.You'd spent a fun week at the Potter's mansion exploring the grounds, playing Quidditch, and eating sweets.

Tristan’s owl had managed to find you every week despite your changing locations. By the fourth week of flying to France your owl had given you a huge peck on the finger and refused to fly for 3 days. It took almost half a train trip to find your boyfriend because you kept getting stopped by friendly faces to swap summer stories. When you found Tristan he greeted you with a warm hug and kiss that made up for not seeing him for two months. The talking, laughing and swapping holiday stories with the other fifth year Ravenclaws didn’t cease until the train halted at its destination: Hogwarts.

\--

Waking up early the next morning you slipped soundlessly down to the Great Hall for breakfast without waking the other girls in the dorm. There were a few frightened looking first years sitting up one end of the Gryffindor table so you decided to join them and make them feel welcome by warning them that if they failed Potions they would be required to eat a whole live toad at the end of the year. When you weren’t telling fibs to the first years you were keeping an eye on the Ravenclaw table hoping to spot Tristan. He usually slept in so you were not surprised to see his usual seat unoccupied at this early hour. You did, however, feel eyes watching you from another table and eventually you turned your head the other way to see Snape sitting by himself.

You gave him a bright smile he ignored. He pushed his seat back and picked up his black backpack, swinging it over his shoulder. You got up to follow him out of the Great Hall, the smell of bacon and eggs soon becoming faint as you made your way to the dungeons.

"How was your summer?” you asked once you had caught up to him.

"Insufferable.”

You had stopped walking now and were waiting outside the classroom for Slughorn to unlock the door. “Lily told me that she saw you during the summer. Do you live close by?”

“Yes,” he confirmed without any other details. It was hard to make out Snape’s expression when you revealed that you and Lily had been talking about him. He didn’t look pleased that she had been telling you about what they had gotten up to. Instead he looked annoyed at being talked about.

Before you could continue your conversation James arrived. As soon as he saw you his hand shot up to his head to rumple his hair. “Evans not ‘round, [Name]?”

”Nope, haven’t seen her all morning. Think she skipped breakfast.”

With Lily out of the picture James physically relaxed. He turned to Snape, seizing the opportunity to bully him. “Stop eavesdropping, Snivellus.”

Snape’s expression soured. ”Don’t flatter yourself, Potter. I have better things to do than listen in on your idiotic conversations.”

Professor Slughorn arrived in time for James and Snape to exchange looks of loathing. Slughorn unlocked the large wooden door to let the class file into the dungeons. An earthy smell of grass and herbs hit you upon entering the room and you could see the ingredients already laid out on the desks.

James nudged your back, following you in closely. He bent down to whisper into your ear. “Go sit with Snape so I can sit with Evans."

“What? No chance – “

“Please, c’mon, [Name], how often is Evans late to class? This could be my only opportunity...” He tried to persuade you with another sharp elbow to your ribs.

“Fine,” you grumbled, rubbing your side as you trudged down to the front of the classroom. You dumped your books down next to Snape. He didn’t say anything which was a good sign but did reward you with one of his most irritated looks that you were finding easier to ignore.

Professor Slughorn announced that you would be making a Befuddlement Draught today. The potion was made with scurvy grass, lovage, and sneezewort, and if made successfully it would make a person reckless and belligerent. The sound of bags opening and pages being turned filled the room once the practical part of the lesson commenced.

Before you could so much as move Snape pushed his book roughly towards you. “Use mine,” he ordered.

You looked down at his book, noticing the comments and notes he had hand written in just like last year. ”I can’t believe you’re actually going to let me help.”

”Don’t make me regret it.”

You straightened up in your chair. You secretly hoped you wouldn’t mess anything up just to impress him.

Snape barked corrections at you every now and then but by the end of class you had successfully made the draught. Unlike James and Lily who you could hear arguing up the back of the room.

“You’ve completely mucked this up,” you heard Lily say to James.

“Aww c’mon, Evans, it’s not that bad! Surely working with someone as good looking as me has made it worthwhile...”

You could imagine the look on Lily’s face at that comment. James had really gotten her worked up. He should count his lucky stars that they were in class and Lily couldn’t hex him in front of a teacher. Not if she wanted to keep her spot in the Slug Club, at least.

You heard footsteps shuffling on the stone floor and turned back round to see Professor Slughorn beaming down at you. “Great work as usual, Mister Snape. And Miss [Surname], well done! I think this new seat suits you. Five house points to each of you.”

”Do your talents have no end?” you said to Snape with a grin on your face. “You could be my potions tutor!”

The corner of Snape’s mouth twitched in acknowledgment of your joke. “Maybe,” he replied. He cleared the table with a swish of his wand and left the classroom without saying goodbye.

You, however, were smiling with accomplishment. You couldn’t believe how much progress you’d made from the first time you sat with him in Potions a year ago. Your happy thoughts vanished when Lily huffed in your ear.

“Why did you take my seat? I am never working with Potter again. He may as well have drunk half that potion the way he was acting.”

“Hey, I’m only doing what you asked me,” you told her. You gave her a look, knowing that she couldn’t argue with you sitting next to Snape because she was the one who had asked you to spend time with him.

“I saw him letting you use his book. He doesn’t let just anyone do that, you know.”

You tried to hide the smug grin on your face from Lily. You didn’t want her to know how much fun this little mission was proving to be.

\--

 

Later that evening you were laying on the freshly cut grass by the Great Lake with your head in Tristan's lap. You had been chatting about his family whilst gazing up at the pink sky as night crept closer. You hadn’t met each other’s families yet and you were enjoying listening to his stories from the summer.

Tristan’s fingertips stroked your forehead lightly as they combed through your hair. “How were your classes today?”

“Good. I think Vector’s really going to go to town with homework this year...” Oddly enough Arithmancy was your favourite class. Despite not being the most studious person Arithmancy just clicked with you. You barely ever finished the homework but always did well in the exams. “I had a bit of help today in Potions from Snape, actually.”

“That mopey looking Slytherin?”

Tristan and yourself were so honest and open with each other that telling Tristan about getting help from another man was not a topic you were afraid of approaching. Tristan knew you were friends with the Gryffindor fella’s as well so you were sure he wouldn’t get jealous.

In fact Tristan didn’t look jealous, just concerned. “He doesn’t hang out with a very good crowd.”

You sat up, becoming defensive. ”He hangs out with Lily.” You didn’t know why but you felt like you had to stick up for Snape.

"And how does he act around you?”

You knew your partner was worried about you so you thought for a moment before responding to the question. After chewing your lip out of nervousness you knew you had to answer honestly. “He’s not very nice,” you admitted softly. “Though,” you added, “he did let me use his Potion’s book today!”

Tristan didn’t seem as excited as you were about that. “Charming.”

You breathed a sigh through your nose. “No, he’s alright under his cold exterior.”

Tristan shifted his legs, moving to stand up. “If you say so. I trust you.” He smiled at you and you smiled back. You were very lucky to have such an understanding boyfriend. “I’ve got to go to Quidditch practice, will you be alright walking back to the castle?”

“Of course I will be, quit worrying,” you said with a small laugh. You pushed yourself up off the grass and wiped the gritty dirt off your hands onto your skirt. _First day and your uniform already required a wash_. Parting ways with a long kiss you made for the castle.

Not hungry enough for dinner you decided to head to the library. Unluckily a lot of your friends were there that evening and your study time rapidly turned into a gossip session. It wasn’t until four hours later that you were left alone. You looked down at your parchment to see that you had only scribbled down an introduction to your essay. Mad at yourself you crossed your arms on the table and banged your head against them.

”Are you trying to lose more brain cells?” a voice taunted.

You sat up quickly. Sometimes you felt as though the air got colder when Snape appeared. “Have you started your Charms essay?”

Snape looked around the library to make sure no-one else was close by before sitting across the table from you. “Of course I have. It wasn’t difficult.” Without asking Snape lent across the table and pulled your parchment towards him. You watched his dark eyes quickly absorbing the words you had written. “You’ve spelt the name of the charm wrong.”

Your brows furrowed together. “What? I’m so daft. Let me see.”

Snape slid the essay back to you. You grasped at the paper, examining how you had spelt the charm ‘Deletrius’ and comparing it to how The Standard Book of Spells had written it. You looked back and forth at least five times before frowning.

“D-e-l-e-t-r-i-u-s,” you spelt out with confidence. You looked up from the parchment at Snape, about to ask him how you had spelt the charm wrong when you noticed he was smirking. “Prat.” The insult only made his smirk deepen, pleased that you had fallen for his trick _. But by falsely accusing you of making a spelling mistake was he secretly telling you your introduction was otherwise fine?_

Snape stood up from his seat. The legs of the chair made a loud scratching noise when he pushed it under the table. “It’s almost nine.”

You waved your wand and your belongings flew into your bag. You followed Snape out of the library, wondering why he always kept such a fast pace and if he purposely did it so that you couldn’t walk next to him.

When you caught up to him you felt like you needed to state the obvious. “This isn’t the way to the dungeons.”

Snape merely looked at you and moments later you were standing out the front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. “Here,” he said, swiftly leaving the scene before you could realise what had happened.

You weren’t sure what was more surprising: that Snape had risked losing House points and a detention for being out after curfew, or that he had courteously escorted you back to your common room. Smiling either way, you spoke the password and entered the Gryffindor common room to find Sirius and James playing exploding snap on the lounge.

“Bloody hell, mate, what happened to your glasses?” You couldn’t help but laugh at James’s bright pink over-sized frames. They flared out on the sides and had fake diamonds stuck on.

James shot you a disgruntled look in response.

“Evans said he needed them to be able to read his Potions book better,” Sirius told you. He gave a hoot of laughter remembering the scenario.

“And are you keeping them like that?” you asked solemnly. Lily was very good at Charms so you could bet that she’d make James suffer with these glasses for as long as possible.

“Yes he is, we’re going into Hogsmede this weekend to get a nice dress to match them, aren’t we?” Sirius teased, putting his arm around his friend and pulling him closer.

James pushed him away. “Piss off, Padfoot. Why don’t you go hang out with Murdock?”

“Oh I heard all about your new girlfriend this evening,” you chimed in. Tina Murdock was an easy target for the lads to make fun of. She was in your grade and obsessed with animals. She’d always have some creepy crawly in her pocket... or sometimes in her hair. Apparently she’d cornered Sirius after Divination to get him to come round to her room to see her giant snail emporium.

James began laughing. “The best part was,” he said in between breaths, “the best part was that Padfoot went back to her room thinking it was all a code for something but she really did just want to show him her snails.”

You and James were almost crying with laughter at this point. Sirius smacked one of the cushions from the chair hard into your face before tackling James to the ground with a heavy thump.

This only made you laugh harder. “Don’t break his glasses!” you yelled to Sirius, watching the pair of them rolling about each trying to get the upper hand.

As if on queue the Fat Lady swung open again to reveal a rather wet looking Remus and Peter. They smelt like the bottom of the Great Lake.

“Don’t ask,” Remus said with a grimace. He then looked at James and Sirius. “What’re they arguing about now?”

You shook your head, a grin on your face. “Don’t ask.” Remus and Peter sat either side of you on the couch. You all turned your gaze to the roughhousing on the floor in front of you.

“3 Knuts on James,” Peter bet.

You shook his hand. “You’re on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for your reviews! Have a great weekend- Im off to Bristol this weekend for a mini break...long trip for a Northerner like myself! ;)
> 
> Where do all my fab readers live!? x


	7. 5th Year - Milkshakes

**December, 1975**

The first snow of the year was always an exciting time at Hogwarts. Fresh new jumpers and other woollies were brought out like a fashion parade. Everyone was decked out this Saturday to watch the Ravenclaw vs Slytherin match. You didn’t really like Quidditch so you had decided that you should probably go to the library whilst it was empty to study. Your feet thudded up the stairs, the noise echoing due the emptiness of the building. Half way up the stairs began changing track so you held onto the rail, waiting for them to stop. At their new position you saw Snape leaning over the banister at the top watching you.

“You’re not going to watch the game? Slytherin’s playing.”

“Your boyfriends playing but you’re not there,” Snape argued back. He immediately started walking so you followed step.

“That’s a valid point.”

Snape gave you a look that told you all his points were valid. “Why aren’t you there then?”

You shrugged. “Not my thing.”

“You’re not a very supportive girlfriend.”

You scoffed. The nerve! How would Snape know anything about what sort of girlfriend you were?! When you glanced sideways at the Slytherin you noticed he was smirking at your flustered face.

“So what are you doing that’s so important?” you asked.

“I was –“ Snape paused, as if debating whether or not he should tell you what he was up to. “I was about to practice making next weeks potion.”

“Oh go on, can I come watch?” What an excellent opportunity to get ahead in that class. Whenever you were sat with your friends you never made the potion as well as when you sat with Snape.

Snape looked at you for a brief second. His gaze was quite intense when you thought about it, his pitch black eyes scrutinising you to see if you were worth his time. “If you must,” he said eventually.

You trailed next to him in relative silence. A few of the portraits tried to strike up a conversation with you but you ignored them to keep up with Snape. When you reached a black door Snape took out his wand and tapped on the door knob. It unlocked and swung open for you to enter. Inside there was a desk with a cauldron on it, as well as two school chairs. For the most part of your time in the classroom you watched Snape in tranquillity. He really took his time and if anything in the book didn’t work he tried a new approach before writing his instructions down. Snape had all the ingredients for the potion in his backpack as well. You didn’t ask how he got them because you were sure he would have had to have snuck into Slughorn’s classroom to pinch them. You couldn’t imagine Snape would want to admit that he broke the rules on occasion to someone like you.

After an hour Snape had perfected the potion and was satisfied with his work. He shut his book before flicking his wand at the cauldron which drained itself.

You stepped outside, pushing a piece of hair behind your ear. The classroom had gotten warm whilst making the potion and your face felt flushed. Snape tapped the door handle again to lock it. The room was left as though you had never been there.

You weren’t sure if Snape was going to say anything to you but you began to hear faint voices become louder and before you knew it Avery and Mulciber were standing in front of you. These two despicable Slytherin's were well known for tormenting first years. They each had a green and white scarf around their neck which signified that the Quidditch match was over.

Mulciber looked you up and down with disgust. “You’re aware she’s a Gryffindor, aren’t you Snape?”

You wanted to knock that sneer off Mulciber’s face. You went to reach for your wand which didn’t go unnoticed.

Avery laughed. “Look how brave she is, going for her wand!”

“She wouldn’t dare,” Snape interjected. He gave you an interesting look as if his eyes were trying to warn you not to do anything stupid.

Satisfied with Snape’s answer and your retreating hand Mulciber and Avery pushed past you.

“Are you coming, Snape?” Avery shouted from behind you.

Snape did not even give you another glance as he turned to catch up to them.

_\--_

"I can't say this is the best idea you've had, Lil."

The red head looked up at you through her green eyes. "Why not?"

"Well I'm sure he won't be happy about me being here."

Lily waved her hand in the air lightly to physically dismiss your comment. "Why can't we hang out as friends?" Lily was really feigning innocence with this trap she’d set up. She was sure that Snape wouldn’t be pleased to see you here; but she sure as hell wasn’t going to tell you that.

The last time you had really spoken to Snape was after that Quidditch match weeks ago. He had rushed off after his friends and you’d chosen to keep clear of him since then. "I don't think he'd call me a _friend_ ," you mumbled, closing your lips around the pink straw sticking up out of your milkshake. The liquid was thick and sweet and tasted like strawberries and cream.

"Sev!"

Mouth still covering the straw you looked up under your eyelashes at Snape. Retracting away from the creamy beverage you saw him give you a look of disapproval.

He turned to Lily. "What's she doing here?"

Well, if he wasn't going to tip-toe around this, then you weren't either. You put your arm around Lily, pulling her close. "We're all going to _hang out as friends,_ aren't we Lil?" you said with a false cheeriness to your voice.

You fixed your eyes on Snape and you smirked at the look on his face. Turning your gaze to Lily you saw her eyes had gone wide. She looked nervous and flustered because she had counted on you playing nice and not make this any more difficult than it had to be. She was wrong because instead of helping her out you had decided to be mischievous instead.

Snape exchanged a wavering glance with Lily before taking a seat at the booth opposite her. “I’m going to get a drink," she said, as though she didn’t know what to do now that you weren’t playing by her rules.

You rolled your eyes at Snape when he crossed his arms and glared at you. "Don't look at me, I didn't plan this."

"Why are you here then?"

"Excuse me? Why are you here? Lily and I have been shopping in Hogsmede all morning and now you show up."

"Lily told me to meet her here at two o’clock. I was not aware you would be here."

"I didn’t know you would be here!" you fired back in defence. You unconsciously mimicked his body language and crossed your arms on the table, turning your face to the side to look out the window and ignore his presence. "I don't know why you're angry at me anyway."

"I- I'm ..." Snape’s jaw clenched and he closed his mouth instantly after opening it. He paused for a second and you turned back to look at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "It doesn't matter,” he spoke. “We may as well get along for Lily’s sake.”

You could feel your heart beating loudly in your chest _\- the absolute nerve of this guy!_ "In case you haven't noticed - I don't have a problem with you. You're the one that seems to have a problem with me and I have no idea why."

You looked towards the counter and noticed Lily was up to order. Standing up you left some Knuts on the table and flung your bag over your shoulder. You picked up your empty plastic cup to take it to the bin with you on your way out.

“What are you doing?" Snape had leapt up from the table as well, his voice a hushed yet urgent cry.

He followed you outside the building until you turned around to face him. He didn't seem to have anything to say - he probably knew that now was the right time to apologise but that option wasn't one he wanted to choose.

You blew some air from your nose to calm yourself. You reminded yourself that it didn’t really matter. Your life would be perfectly pleasant enough without Snape’s frendship. "It's fine,” you told him. “Go back inside. You can tell Lily I'm not feeling well. I won't tell her what happened."

He studied your face carefully and you felt the minutes ticking away as he evaluated your offer. "Why would you do that for me?" he asked. The look on his face proved that he was curious of your kindness.

"I'm not doing it for you,” you replied with a simple shrug. “Have fun.” When you turned to walk away you could’ve sworn you’d heard him mutter a thank you.

Snape watched you walk away from him without another word. It was true that he didn't know that much about you, nor girls for that matter, but he was almost certain that you had actually meant it that one time when you had told him that you liked him. He was also conscious that his heart beat quickened for a second remembering that. He couldn't recall anyone showing interest in him apart from Lily.

Yet Snape could not accept that someone would want to be nice to him just for the sake of being nice. He was surprised you even spoke to him after what had happened between the two of you outside the potions classroom a few months ago.

He almost felt embarrassed about his behaviour this afternoon. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so cruel to you and should have asked you to stay. But now was not the time to contemplate such things. Lily was waiting inside for him.

\--

You rounded the corner at a terribly rough speed, your head still playing back the situation that had just happened. Despite your calm demeanour before you were secretly fuming that Snape still deemed you such an inconvenience.

“Sorry, Peter.”

“Sorry, [Name]!” Peter apologised quickly, even though it hadn’t been his fault that you’d walked smack bang into him and almost bowled him over. “What’re you up to?” he asked.

“I’m trying to understand why some men are complete pillocks,” you snapped.

“Shit, [Name], I said I was sorry, I didn’t mean to walk into you – I wasn’t looking where I was going and – “

You shook your head. “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout you, silly.” Peter always wanted to get on people’s good side. You got the feeling that he was constantly afraid he’d do something wrong and that your group would no longer like him for whatever reason.

“Oh, is Tristan playing up? Do you want me to tell James and Sirius? They could plan something for us and we could get revenge on him…”

You shook your head. “Nah, I’m not talking about Tristan either. I’m thinking about another bloke.”

“Another bloke?” Peter repeated. “Gees, you’re an attractive bird and all but how many fella’s do you need?”

“Shut up, Peter.” The last thing you needed was a rumour spread about you cheating on Tristan. Peter was good at eavesdropping, getting juicy information on people, and then spreading that information around whether it was true or not. “The other bloke is just an acquaintance.”

“Acquaintance?”

“Yeah. An acquaintance. And a pain in my arse,” you admitted, causing Peter to give a snort of laughter as you headed back to Hogwarts.

\--


	8. 5th Year - Snape's Worst Memory

_May 1976_

Your year was currently sitting their O.W.L’s. The last month had required so much study that you almost completely avoided the Mauraders out of fear that they’d distract you. On the other hand you were dying to hang out with the boys because if you had to use Lily’s Charms flashcards one more time you’d hex her. The smell of blooming flowers carried on the breeze trickled through the open windows in the corridor as you walked towards the library. Your friends had all gone outside to enjoy the sunshine. The nice weather was making your walk particularly difficult.

But you persevered. All afternoon you sat in the library reading a semesters worth of Defence Against the Dark Arts notes. You really should start paying more attention in class instead of just turning up and misbehaving. Luckily you had a good memory and when it came down to it you were very talented with your wand. Spells came to you with ease... you just had to remember them is all. After three hours of study you were eager to get back to the Gryffindor common room to get changed and make it to the Great Hall in time for dessert. Ice cream for dinner made total sense to you tonight.

When you neared the Fat Lady’s portrait you noticed Snape leaning up against the grey stone wall outside the common room. His sour expression that was fixed on his crossed arms changed to one of relief when he noticed your arrival.

He called out your name in what almost sounded like delight. He stepped away from the wall and moved in front of you. “Can you get Lily?”

Snape had never once looked pleased to see you so your proceeded with caution. Especially now that he needed a favour from you. “Get her to do what?” you said, intentionally playing dumb.

“Get her to see me.” You could hear the exasperation and desperation thick in his voice. He didn’t have time for games. “I need to speak to her.”

Your face fell flat. “What did you do?” Snape was one of Lily’s closest friends and if she wasn’t speaking to him then something bad must have happened.

Snape glared at you. He wasn’t going to tell you what had happened in the slightest. He crossed his arms across his chest and shifted his gaze back to the ground. “I’ll wait here all night if I have to.”

You sighed, deciding to cut him a bit of slack. “I’ll see what I can do.”

You spoke the password to the portrait and entered the common room where James and Sirius were playing wizard chess and Peter was quizzing Remus on questions from his textbook.

“You guys seen Lily around?” you asked the crew.

James shrugged and Sirius didn’t answer you. Peter looked nervously between the boys, yourself, and the staircase to the girls dormitory.

Finally Remus gave you a softly spoken answer. “She’s upstairs. I don’t know if she’ll want to be bothered.”

 _What was going on?_ You were only in the library for a few hours and suddenly Snape was threatening to sleep outside the Gryffindor common room and James seems uninterested in conversation concerning Lily Evans? Remus hadn’t put you off speaking to your friend so taking the steps two at the time you burst into the fifth girl’s dormitory.

The first sign that something was wrong was that the curtains were drawn around Lily’s bed. It was only 7pm so it wasn’t as though she was going to go to sleep. You cleared your throat. “Lil? It’s me.”

Lily magicked open the curtains. She was sat on her bed in her school uniform with her legs stretched out. On her lap was a book. It wasn’t a school book so she had been reading for leisure.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she lied.

You decided to cut to the chase. “Ok, but Snape is waiting outside the common room. Said he wants to speak to you.” You saw the scowl on her face when you said his name.

“I’m not speaking to him,” she replied coldly.

You couldn’t help but pry. “What happened?”

Lily chewed on the question for a moment before answering. “There was a – a _disagreement_ between James and Severus this afternoon. I stepped in to defend Severus and he...” Lily paused to to take a deep breath before continued. “He called me a mudblood.” Her voice faultered when she repeated the vile word and you winced. “Needless to say – I don’t want to speak to him.”

“I can’t believe he said that... to you, Lil. Of all people... _to you,_ ” you said softly, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

You were utterly shocked. Lily was the only person Snape liked. The only person. And he called her that! It was unbelieveable. Lily was such a good friend to him and such a great person in general. How could he treat her like that?

The more you thought about it the more your blood began to boil. You jumped up, grabbing your wand.

Lily stared at you. “Please don’t do what I think you’re going to do.”

“Me and Snape are gunna have a real nice chat is all.”

“[Name]....” There was a tone of warning in Lily’s voice but you didn’t care. By this point you were absolutely furious.

Knowing that Lily wouldn’t follow you, you half fell down the stairs and hurled yourself through the exit of the Gryffindor common room so forcefully that the Fat Lady let out a scream when she thumped shut.

Your wand was out and pointed at Snape before he could look at you. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Snape’s face remained still. Uncharacteristically, he didn’t draw his wand when confronted by you. “So you’ve spoken to Lily then.” He sounded displeased and his arms remained folded over his chest. He was posed in a way to deflect any criticism you were about to throw at him.

“Of course I have. How dare you go around the school using words like that... calling your FRIEND a – a...” Your heart was beating in your chest and you couldn’t repeat the word. “Look, I don’t care how you act around me because it's clear that you don't like me, but why would you... to Lily... WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD?”

“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” he spat, his eyes narrowing but not meeting yours.

“No, thankfully, you don’t. You need to explain yourself to Lily, _if she’ll even listen to you.”_

You had cooled down after your rant and you finally eased the steel grip you had on your wand. You took some time to examine Snape. At first glance his exterior seemed defensive and menacing yet when you looked closer you saw a poor teenage boy who had made a very bad mistake and had come to apologise.

Snape broke the silence.“I feel terrible,” he confessed. "I regret what happened...what I said."

This was big of him to admit, especially because James and Sirius had been part of the incident. There was no doubt that they had been provoking Snape and had contributed to todays catastrophe.

To you, nothing could excuse the language Snape had used. “I’m sure you do feel terrible. I would if I were you,” you added, just to convey to him how innappropriately he had acted.

With one last fleeting look you reentered the Gryffindor common room. You counted not hexing Snape as a personal accomplishment. Character growth. You’d hexed people for less.

Remus saw you re-enter the common room. He had put two and two together about what you had been doing outside. He stood up when you entered and jutted his head towards the back of the room to a secluded spot. You trusted Remus to give you the most accurate version of what had happened.

You listened carefully to his re-telling and by the end of the story you honestly just felt bad for Lily. Snape’s outburst towards her was cruel. Lily did not understand that in defending Snape she was bruising his ego in front of James and Sirius. As for those two troublemakers... you couldn’t say you were surprised. They were your friends but they were certainly bullies.

 

\--

 

It wasn’t until a few days later that you saw Snape again. You were walking to dinner with your Nala, Lily, and Alice. Snape was walking alone in the opposite direction away from the Great Hall. You caught his glance when you neared each other. Although the smell of fresh vegetables was tempting you told Nala you were going to the toilet and doubled back.

Catching up to Snape you tugged on his arm to make him notice you. He didn’t pull away immediately which half made you think that he was expecting you to come bother him. You stepped off to the side of the corridor, just in case someone saw you.

He gave you an icy cold stare. “What do you want?”

You ignored his comment. “Just seeing if you’re alright.”

“Why do you care?”

His rude question made you scoff. “I can care about you if I want to.”

“Then you would be wasting your time.”

“I’m wasting my time being a nice person, am I?”

Your reply made his scowl deepen. “You have caused me more trouble than you are worth. You can’t mind your own business. Is it so hard for you to comprehend that not everyone wants to be your friend? Your friendship is not as desirable as you think it is.”

Now you were damn determined to prove him wrong, which probably only really demonstrated what Snape had said about you to be true _. You did find it hard to accept that he didn’t want to be your friend._

“You don't mean that.”

“You are a silly little girl whose naivety – "

“And what about you?!” you hissed. “You think you’re better than everyone else! What have I ever done to YOU?”

His face began to contort with anger and frustration. “You and your friends have -”

“STOP. Stop comparing me to James or Sirius. I may be their friend but I certainly don’t agree with the way they treat you! Did you ever think of that!?”

The corner of Snape’s mouth curled into a sickening smile. “You’re so foolish, thinking you can trick me into believing that you care about me. Lily told me that you only speak to me because she asked you to.”

You finally backed down to his menacing stare and tore your eyes away from his. He had won that argument. With another nasty look Snape walked away, leaving you to stand alone in the deserted corridor.

Left alone to gather your thoughts and feelings.


	9. 5th Year - Time for a friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer** : I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. Also this chapter has a bit of Bridget Jones feel to it, just so you know. I don't own Bridget Jones either, Helen Fielding does.

_June, 1976_

You had never felt so speechless in your entire life. So speechless, so stupid, so embarrassed, and most of all so upset at how everything you had been through in the last two years with Snape had amounted to nothing. There was only one person who you could talk to about how you were feeling right now and that person was probably the last person in Hogwarts who wanted to talk about Severus Snape.

You dragged your feet all the way to the Gryffindor tower and waited in the girls dormitory for Lily to come back from dinner in the Great Hall. When she arrived you pounced. You literally pushed her onto her bed and closed the curtains around you with a flick of your wand, telling Nala and Alice to go downstairs and make themselves useful. You’d just use a silencing charm anyway if they didn’t leave but you wanted them to have an option.

“I need to talk to you,” you said the moment you two were alone. Lily sensed the urgency in your voice so didn’t protest about the ambush. “I’ve just been speaking to Snape and – “

“I’ve told you and I’ve told him - I am not interested in being his friend,” Lily interrupted you to prematurely guess what you were about to say. Her voice was stern and there was a line of frustration in between her dainty eyebrows. Merlin knows how many times Snape had tried to make amends these last few days.

“I’m not talking about that,” you snapped. “I spoke to him just now in the corridors and he told me that he knew about our ‘little plan’...”

It took Lily a moment but when she had cottoned on to what you were getting at she grimaced and swore under her breath. “I’m so sorry, [Name]. I told him you only spoke to him because I had asked you to. I was so caught up in the moment arguing with him...”

She bit her lip and paused. You looked at her with wide eyes, eager for her to elaborate about why they were talking about you.

“He waited for me one day after I’d been in the library... he came to apologise again to me. I told him it was too late and he had lost his only friend. He started listing off some Slytherin’s he’s friends with and then, then he named you... you as one of his friends.”

“So you told him I wasn’t one of his friends?”

“We were arguing!” Lily said, but once she caught a look at your scowl she sighed. “I didn’t mean to tell him... I guess part of me wanted to hurt him.” Lily looked worried. “Please don’t be mad at me, [Name].”

You pondered Lily’s words for a moment finally deciding that you couldn’t be angry at her. She had probably wanted to cause Snape as much pain and embarrassment as he had caused her. It was just unfortunate that the thing that she used to hurt him was you. Lily didn’t realise that ending her friendship with Snape was probably enough to hurt him for a lifetime.

Lily had grabbed your hand, mistaking your silence for anger. “I’m an idiot, I know.”

Wait a minute... you backtracked on what Lily had said, ignoring her last statement. Did this mean that Snape had regarded you as a friend!? Holy shit! So that last two years of persistence hadn’t been completely for nothing! You had actually maybe meant something to him.

Now you just had to convince Snape that you had something worthwhile, because you certainly weren’t ready to give up on it.

\--

Tristan lifted your trunk from the train carriage and down onto the platform. “I’ll write to you every week.” He planted a kiss on your lips and you wrapped your arms around his neck in a goodbye embrace. You’d really miss him this summer. He was off to France again and you were doubtful that you’d be allowed to visit him. Even for the amount of sneaking around that you did when your parents were at work you did draw the line at going to France. Nope, it’d be another boring and lonely summer at home for you. You’d be waiting for an owl from James as impatiently as you awaited your Hogwarts acceptance letter.

You wandered around Kings Cross station for a couple of minutes trying to spot your mother or father. You prayed that they hadn’t forgotten to pick you up again like they had in your 2nd year when they’d lost track of time at work. Your spirits strangely rose when you saw Snape standing by a stone wall. You hadn’t managed to get him alone the last few days at school so now was your chance to speak to him. You both seemed to be the only students who hadn’t been collected by their family already.

You didn’t give your luggage a second thought and left it unattended to walk over to Snape.

“Hey,” you said, once you had reached him. He shot you a glare but as he looked around the empty station he couldn’t argue the fact that you were completely alone and that he was free to chat.

However you didn’t know what to say to him. On one hand you had one hundred things to explain. You wanted him to know that there had been a misunderstanding about what Lily had said. Yes, you had only started talking to him because she had asked you to, but since your very first conversation you had found yourself enthralled with him and had found any excuse to spend time together. You felt like you did honestly like Snape and if telling him that flat out didn't work, then how else could you do it?

“I’m sorry,” you blurted out. You looked at the ground, instantly feeling embarrassed again over what had happened. “I’m really sorry. For everything. I know what Lily said must’ve hurt your feelings.”

You finally peeked at his face to read his expression, his lips were pushed tightly together and now he refused to meet your eyes, instead choosing to look over your shoulder behind you. He probably wanted to blurt out that someone like you could never even dream of hurting his 'feelings'.

“Is that your owl? I like it,” you said before you could stop yourself. A stupid sentence to make you feel less awkward about the growing silence.

To you surprise Snape smirked at your throwaway comment and met your eyes. “Where’s your trunk?”

“Over there.” You turned and pointed to your luggage that stood alone by a pillar.

Snape gave a grunt of disapproval and pushed his trolley towards yours. "It's not wise to leave it unattended, especially around muggles.”

A moment passed and you began to feel uncomfortable under his judgmental gaze. _Why did he stare so much?_

"Lily was right; she did ask me to talk to you in the beginning. And I know you won’t believe me but I really do enjoy being around you." You took a deep breath and continued your ramble. "Even though every time I’m around you I feel like a complete idiot.”

“I don’t think you’re an idiot at all,” he replied.

Before you could question Snape or dwell on the peculiar way he was looking at you, you heard your mother’s voice and whipped around.

“Sorry I’m late.” Your mum hugged you though her eyes wandered over to Snape. “Who’s this?”

You answered her with a smile. “This is Severus Snape – Severus this is my mum.”

“Oh, lovely.” Your mum smiled and offered her hand. Severus looked at her for a moment before hesitantly shaking it. “It’s nice to meet you, Severus.”

“Well, we better be off, mother dearest,” you said loudly hinting that your mum should be prepare herself to get going.

It was obvious that Snape felt quite uncomfortable standing near you and your mother but you couldn’t help wrapping your arms around his neck and giving him a hug goodbye. You knew that although he may not know how to properly interact with you yet he wouldn’t push you away if your mum was standing there. His hands remained at his side momentarily before he raised one stiffly to your back.

You winked at him when you pulled away. “Have a great summer. See you in September.”

Snape reddened softly and began busying himself with straightening out his shirt. Once you had turned your back he dropped his facade and watched you walk away. He couldn’t believe you had dared to hug him... Yet despite that little show at the end Snape was secretly glad that you had made up.

\---

Eileen Snape had been watching her son from afar. “Did you have a good year?” Her voice was monotonous and Severus continued staring at the floor as he walked with her to the car. “Who was that girl I just saw?” she asked, more interest in her tone this time.

“A friend,” he spoke quietly.

“I thought you didn’t have time for friends,” his mother stated, causing Severus to disappear into his thoughts.

It didn’t matter what his mother thought, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. All Severus cared about was that he had at least something _(or someone)_ to look forward to when he returned to Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've finished your 5th year, congrats dear Reader!
> 
> So I updated a wee bit early this month, but dont get too excited. Im moving house and **wont be able to update until October.**
> 
> Please bear with me until then. I appreciate your comments & kudos so much xxxx


	10. 6th Year - Au Revoir

_September, 1976_

It all made sense now. That was why he hadn’t written to you every week like he had promised. That was why he had ushered you out of his train carriage on the Hogwarts Express and told you he'd speak to you later. That was why he had avoided you the entire first day back and changed his seat in Transfiguration.

You wished you had a good enough reason to hex him. You wished he’d done something bad so that you could cause a scene or destroy him in a duel. Unfortunately it was the opposite and you had no excuse to go around badmouthing Tristan. It was clear that he was nervous to end things between you but he had broken it to you in the best way possible. You were alone in the courtyard when he told you he didn’t want to be your boyfriend anymore. He hadn’t blamed you for anything and he had even consoled you when (to your horror) you had begun to cry. He answered any questions you had and then left when you asked him to.

When you were missing at dinner your friends finally realised something was up. Besides, if anyone in the entire world wanted to get a message spread quickly all they had to do was come to Hogwarts and tell one person their secret. The news about you and Tristan was the hottest topic at dinner and you not being there began to make more and more sense as the news travelled up the Gryffindor table. Once the Gryffindor girls had discovered the reason why you weren’t stuffing your face full of your favourite roast potatoes they dropped their cutlery down with a clang and rushed off back to the Tower.

The curtains around your bed were blown open and you felt 3 bodies plop down.

“Up ya get.” Nala rolled you over onto your back so you couldn’t hide your face in the pillows. On the palm of her hand she presented a chocolate covered profitterole to you. She must’ve snuck it out of the Great Hall.

“I’m not hungry,” you answered like a spoilt child and tried to turn back onto your stomach.

“Tell us what happened.” Lily’s voice was stern. She was picking at her cuticles whilst she stared you down. She must be worried.

You gave up, knowing that it would be impossible to avoid retelling the story forever. Sitting up on your red blanketed bed you looked at Lily, Nala, and Alice in turn before sighing. “He was so bloody nice about it. Said we’d grown apart... that’s not bad, is it?” You looked at your friends with hope in your eyes. “I didn’t do anything wrong... he just... doesn’t... he just doesn’t love me anymore.” You were staring firmly at your blankets now, scared that if you looked at your friends you’d start crying again.

Alice seemed to guess what you were avoiding and magicked a box of tissues over to the bed.

After a while Nala broke the silence. “So basically what you’re saying is I can’t hex him?”

You gave a sad laugh that turned into a cough.

You couldn’t believe this was happening.

\--

You awoke early the next morning after a miserable night’s sleep. You forced your feet to move sluggishly across the carpeted floor of the dormitory to the gold tiled bathroom to have a shower. When you saw yourself in the mirror you had to admit you looked worse than usual at this hour. The whites of your eye were pink and lined with red veins, complemented by the blue and purple bags of skin underneath. After standing under the steaming hot jets you finally towelled off and put on your uniform.

How were you going to mentally prepare yourself for the day ahead? The sympathetic glances… the overly fake friendliness… the inevitable gossip. No doubt the news would have travelled quickly and everyone would know what had happened. You wouldn’t be surprised if the Professors knew about your break up. _Maybe they’d give you less homework?_

Slumping down into your seat at the Gryffindor table you slowly picked up some toast, forcing yourself to eat because you had skipped dinner the night before. As you were chewing mechanically and staring off into the distance you didn’t notice someone sit down next to you.

You did snap back to reality when that certain someone snatched the toast out of your hand. “No jam? No butter? What the hell has gotten into you this morning?” Sirius made a deal of buttering the toast for you before shoving it back in front of your face. “Dear lord you look terrible!” he blurted out.

 _Turning 16 didn’t provide Sirius Black with tact._ You took the toast from him and gave him a dirty look.

“Oi, Prongs,” he called out to his friend, “look at her!”

James, who was sitting across the table and a few seats down, took one look at you before glaring over at the Ravenclaw table and raising his voice. “That tosser,” he growled. “He’s going to regret dumping you.”

“Can you not make a big deal of this please?” you hissed.

“As much as I am afraid of your Leek Jinx I’m going to have to decline your request,” James replied.

You served James a horrible look for disobeying your orders before standing up. No sooner were you on your feet than James and Sirius shot up as well. Sirius linked his arm through yours. “I don’t need an escort, thank you very much,” you told them.

They ignored you once again and walked you to the dungeons for Potions. When Slughorn arrived and opened the classroom Sirius dragged you into a chair next to him up the back of the class. James and Remus sat at the next table which meant that Lily had to pair up with Snape. You watched the two of them for a bit. They minded their own business with their backs angled away from one another. They didn’t speak a word and worked in silence. You weren’t surprised – you had guessed that they hadn’t made up friends during the summer break or Lily would've mentioned it.

When you looked back at the cauldron on your table you gave a bark of laughter. Was Sirius trying to make pumpkin juice or a deflating draught? All you knew was that he had used about three times the amount of dragon poison for the potion to be effective. You placed your head in your hands, drifting back to your thoughts and letting Sirius carry on with the potion. When you heard the familiar shuffle of Professor Slughorn's shoes you picked your head back up off the table.

“Mister Black, Miss [Surname], not a very good start to the year!”

You peeped into the cauldron to see Sirius’s final product and began to laugh. A deflating draught should be dark blue. Sirius’s potion was still orange.

Sirius pinched your cheeks. “Glad I could make you laugh,” he said when Slughorn had gone.

As the class had ended people were filing out of the dungeons. You felt eyes watching you and you turned away from Sirius’s grinning face to see Snape looking at you as he walked out.

James stopped when he reached your table. “Evan's said she's going to use the deflating draught for my head," he said with a grin. He was just happy Lily had spoken to him. You noticed the corners of his sleeves looked singed from the lesson. "You coming outside for lunch?” James asked you and Sirius.

In the summer months lots of the students liked eating their meals outside in the sun. This brought back too many memories of the picnics you and Tristan used to have.

“I might go to the library or something,” you lied. You’d probably go to your dorm and hide.

“I guess we’d only be stopping you from drowning yourself in the Great Lake anyway,” Sirius joked. He gave your hair a ruffle before leaving the classroom with James.

You packed up slowly without magic, making sure you were the last in the classroom. You didn’t want anyone to try and walk with you back to the dorm. Once your backpack was full you swung it over your shoulder. The weight of the bag was too much and the strap snapped and spilt your belongings over the floor.

Black liquid went everywhere when your ink jar shattered. “Oh for Merlin’s sake,” you moaned. You crouched down to pick up your quill and collect the wet parchment.

Another hand joined yours and you looked up to see Snape crouching opposite you. He must have been waiting outside and your noisiness had drawn him back in. The two of you stood up and Snape pointed his wand at your shoulder. He muttered a mending charm and the strap reattached instantly. He’d cast a good spell because all the tethers and loose strings that had been there before vanished.

You hesitantly swung your backpack over your shoulder. You gave it a small tug to make sure it was safe. “Thank you.”

You were sort of glad that out of anyone who could’ve been waiting for you after class that it had been Snape. You still wished that your bag hadn’t snapped in the first place though so you could be alone in your bed crying.

Your head began to pound with all your woeful thoughts and you saw white spots in front of you. You reached out for the edge of the table and plonked your bottom down to steady yourself. You blinked to clear the white spots out of your vision.

“What’s wrong?” Snape’s voice was firm sounding but you could detect a small amount of worry on his face from the way his eyes bore into yours.

“I think it’s just a headache.”

“Perhaps someone slipped a dizziness draught into your pumpkin juice this morning?”

“Who would do that?” you asked. Snape gave you a look to tell you that he thought it was obvious. “You think my ex-boyfriend would want to physically hurt me?”

“It was merely a suggestion.”

Your lips twisted into a small smile. “So you heard the news then?”

“I do not concern myself with gossip.”

You were grinning again. “Uh-huh, sure. Are you here to make sure I’m ok?”

Before Snape could argue with you there was loud bang from outside. You met each others eyes for a split second, your dizziness forgotten as you dashed out of the dungeons and into the lower grounds. Pushing through the crowd of students you watched on mortified at Sirius pointed his wand at Tristan, James by his side.

“Because you’re a prat,” you heard Sirius say to a prior comment you hadn’t been there for. He sent a babbling curse at Tristan who quickly blocked it.

“I don’t want to duel, Black.” Tristan didn’t look happy and as a Ravenclaw he would not be familiar with this sort of revengeful nonsense. “[Name] and I are on good terms.”

“Good terms?” James bellowed. “Have you seen her today? She looks a right mess!”

Oh for Merlin’s sake. You felt so humiliated despite the act of ‘kindness’ that James and Sirius thought they were doing. A few people noticed you were at the front of the crowd and started whispering to each other. A couple of Ravenclaws shot you dirty looks. Sirius pointed his wand at Tristan and sent another hex his way, which Tristan blocked with ease. _This wasn’t fair._ You weren’t happy with Tristan but he definitely did not deserve to be picked on by two Gryffindors who were interfering in business that was not their own.

You walked out into the middle of the duel. A million eyes were on you now. You waved your hands madly as you approached Sirius and James, trying to get their attention.“Stop it!” You scowled at Sirius, ducking and narrowly avoiding one of his spells intended for Tristan.

You changed your tactic and decided to move in front of Tristan, hoping that James and Sirius would stop firing spells in case they hit you instead. As soon as you began to move your footing became lost and your head begun spinning out of control with those same white dots blurring your vision. A thudding noise told you that you had hit the stone floor and you could make our a few figures hovering over you, calling your name.

“Get out of the way, Snivellus,” you heard Sirius bark before he picked you up with ease.

Your eyes slipped shut and all you could see was darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience! I have a laptop again but it's super old and dodgy but yay!


	11. 6th Year - The Hospital Wing

Your head felt like it weighed 100 pounds. Whatever medicine Madam Pomfrey had given you it had certainly left you feeling groggy. Your hopeless effort to pull yourself into a sitting position was not greeted fondly. Immediately there was a great cry of protest from your visitors and a dozen pairs of hands pushed you back into the soft pillows behind you. Inhaling deeply, you blinked your eyes a few times to steady your blurry focus.

“Are you ok?” You recognised Tristan’s voice first and tried to find his brown curly locks to distinguish him from others. “Do you need me to get Madam Pomfrey?”

Though blinking like a mad woman you refused medical attention by ignoring his question and asking one of your own. “What the hell happened?”

“You fainted," Tristan told you.

“Yeah, thanks to you,” you heard James answer spitefully back from the other side of the hospital bed.

“I didn’t do anything to her, Potter. I wasn’t the one firing spells around like a madman."

“Didn't do anything!? You’re only the one that broke her heart!” Oh for Merlin’s sake, Sirius was here too. You could only imagine the conversation that had been going on before you’d woken up.

Tristan crossed his arms sensibly over his Ravenclaw robes. “I think you two should leave. You’re clearly causing [Name] to become distressed."

Unfortunately sensible was not a word in Sirius’s vocabulary. “I don’t even know why you’re here, Roux, you clearly don’t care about [Name],” he argued. “She's our friend and I think you should leave before I have to make you leave.”

Sirius stood up and you were quite sure he had his wand in his hand. Tristan stood up next, taking his wand out from his cloak pocket in response. You had to put an end to this silliness.

“Guys,” you croaked.

You blinked again, more sight returning to your eyes. You could see that James was up as well and for once he wasn't making matters worse but was actually pulling Sirius to sit down and behave. Lily was looking at James with her eyebrows raised, surprised he wasn't egging on a fight.

“GUYS!” you wailed, finally getting their attention. “I really appreciate you all being here but I’ve got a killer headache and would like some peace and quiet.”

“I haven’t made any noise,” Lily protested, irritated that you had lumped her in with Sirius and James.

James looked briefly at Lily and then at you. “If Evans gets to stay then so do I,” he added.

Lily huffed and narrowed her eyes. “If Potter stays then we should call Madam Pomfrey over because he's going to have bat's flying out of his nose any minute now..." She twiddled her wand in between her fingers and gave James a falsely sweet smile.

“Alright you two! I’m fine, seriously, Sleeping Beauty has woken up and is feeling better."

Sirius grinned at your comparison. “I did kiss you about ten times but you didn't wake up."

You pulled a face. “You better bloody not have.”

When James had realised that you were truthfully feeling alright and they could leave he jumped up and clapped his hands together, taking charge as usual. “Right, come on, all of you! Out!”

Lily gave you a small smile. It was more than likely that she had to spend a great deal of time with Sirius and James before you woke up and she was ready to go.

After all your friends had cleared out of the Hospital Wing your head lolled back onto your pillow and your eyes slipped shut. You became lost in your thoughts and began to over-analyze your relationship with Tristan. Everyone was making a huge deal out of your break up. Yes, you were hurt, but when you thought about it you were more shocked that your relationship had ended than upset. You had become complicit in your relationship. Perhaps you had just assumed you would be with Tristan forever. You couldn’t see why not – the two of you never fought and were always so honest with each other. But now you felt lied to.

You exhaled, massaging your temple with your fingertips. You heard footsteps towards the back of the room and cracked an eye open, praying Madam Pomfrey wasn’t back to give you another potion. You were relieved to see Snape standing at the end of your bed, his arms crossed cautiously over his chest. You wondered how long he’d been watching you but knew there was no point in asking because he wouldn't answer.

“You can sit down,” you suggested and pointed to the grey chair that James had previously been occupying. “My brain hurts so please don’t try and engage me in anything that requires me to use it.”

Snape took two swift steps towards the chair next to your bed and sat down. He stared at the bunch of purple hibiscus in a vase on your bedside table before picking up a card with his long fingers. He read the get well message with little interest before placing it back on the table. You felt a familiar feeling of not knowing what to say to Snape once again. You no longer felt as though you needed to make an effort to be his friend or get into his good books. Instead, you snuck a glance at the Slytherin. He sat self-consciously with his shoulders hunched forward, alerting you that he didn’t feel totally comfortable being here, despite the kind gesture of showing up. Although he was hunched over you could tell that he’d grown taller over the summer and his shoulders were broader now. His hair was very much the same length that he always kept it but it fell a lot more delicately around his features that he had grown into.

“What?” His voice had become lower over the holidays too, as it snapped you out of your thoughts. Looks like even Severus Snape, Master of Staring, didn’t like being stared at.

“I’m just…wondering why you’re here,” you half-lied. “I assume it’s because I’m single now and you’ve come to declare your love for me.” You cracked a smile that would surely piss him off.

Snape slumped back into the hospital chair and raised an eyebrow wearily.

Now it was your turn to feel self-conscious. “Come on, I was clearly joking.”

He blinked, looking away from you. “Good.”

“Whatever,” you replied, rolling your eyes. You flicked them towards the large clock ticking away in the corner of the room. “Shouldn’t you be at dinner?”

Snape avoided your eyes for what felt like an eternity. When you realised he wasn’t going to answer you spoke again.

“You can go to dinner, really. I feel fine," you repeated for what must have been the hundredth time.

Snape studied your face to make sure he was satisfied with your answer and your honesty. Finally he stood up. He acknowledged your encouraging nod and flicked you a small smile before leaving the Hospital Wing.

That hadn’t gone as badly as you had thought.

\---

After doing a few more checks on your head the next morning Madam Pomfrey excused you from the Hospital Wing. She had told you your light-headedness had been caused by stress and given you a weeks supply of calming draught. You exited the Hospital Wing quite cheerful for a Wednesday as you had succeeded in missing your first class of the day (Advanced Transfiguration) and could head straight to the Great Hall for lunch. With your newly fixed bag slung over one shoulder and your hibiscus’s in your hand you marched down the corridors with a skip in your step.

That was until you overheard two witches talking about you.

“That’s her, yeah, he dumped her two days ago,” one whispered to the other.

“Look, she’s got flowers. Do you think she’s got a new boyfriend already?”

“Probably, I heard she was quite common.”

You skidded to a stop at that last accusation. “Excuse me?” you hissed through clenched teeth. With a threatening look on your face you turned to look at the two witches who were speaking ill of you. You recognised them as Slytherin’s from your Potions class. “I’ll have you know that these are ‘get well’ flowers, actually.”

The witch with short black hair raised a thin eyebrow at you. “So what? That doesn’t prove that you don’t get around.”

“You sound spiteful. Have I hexed you before? Or are you jealous?”

“I wouldn’t be jealous of someone like you,” she spat, her face screwing up in disgust and rage. “It’s not hard to be popular with all the boys when you just lie on your back.”

Your hand tightened around your wand and you begun to feel that same nauseating spinning in your head. You weren’t unfamiliar with this type of gossip. Being friends with the marauders since first year had earned you all sorts of names. By 6th year you had assumed that people would understand that you were only friends with the lads and nothing more. You thought that dating Tristan for 2 years might help ward off rumours but with hormones and emotions overruling most students minds you were still subject to name calling.

“What did you say?” Your wand was out now and pointed at the two Slytherins. “Go on, tell me more,” you lured.

“Everyone knows you get around,” she continued as cockily as before. Her friend was sniggering beside her. “Why do you think that Ravenclaw left you?”

“Porrum!” you said, watching leeks immediately sprout from the Slytherin’s ears. The other witch gasped, raising a startled hand to her mouth and taking a step back from her friend. You pointed your wand at her. “Try me, bitch.”

“MISS [SURNAME]!” Professor Flitwick shouted, rushing over. He struggled to get past the small group of people that had gathered but you were smart enough not to cast anymore spells. “Duelling is NOT allowed on Hogwart grounds! You know this!”

You bit your lip and looked down at the ground. You hated disappointing Professor Flitwick because he was such a nice Professor and you enjoyed Charms. “Sorry, Professor,” you mumbled, staring at your shoes.

“And the leek jinx again, Miss [Surname]! I have specifically spoken to you about your use of that spell.” Flitwick turned his back to you. Yeah, specifically spoken to you because you were getting so good at it that Madam Pomfrey’s remedy was taking longer to work. “Now, Miss Hemlock, please take Miss Blackrose to the Hospital Wing.”

You watched the two witches rush off together without even looking back at you. That was a win in your eyes.

“Miss [Surname] that will be 20 points from Gryffindor and you will report to Filch’s office this evening for a weeks detention,” Flitwick said sternly. He then made his way back through the crowd that were mulling around. Most of them had stopped looking at you by now.

You turned on your heel and took a few steps towards your original destination – the Great Hall for lunch. Even though your head was still pounding and you were angry as hell, you were still hungry and not about to miss another meal. Madam Pomfrey had made you eat cabbage stew for dinner last evening. Eugh.

“Feeling well enough to cause trouble I see,” you heard a cold voice say. You looked to your side and saw Snape sitting on one of the benches. He had a book in his hand which he lowered when he spoke to you.

“I made a mistake,” you admitted with a frown. Due to how close he had been sitting you guessed he had witnessed the whole thing, including the verbal exchange. “I should’ve hit her.”

Snape stood up and rolled his eyes. “You’re determined to get expelled.”

“I wouldn’t do that, you’d miss me too much.” You were walking side by side now towards the Great Hall. “What's her name again?”

“The one who was particularly friendly was Isabella Blackrose. The other was Edana Hemlock.”

“Right.”

As you entered the Great Hall Snape immediately parted ways with you and headed towards the Slytherin table. With an exasperated sigh you plonked yourself down next to Remus and Sirius.

“Week’s detention, huh?” Remus asked straightaway.

“Merlin’s sake, word really gets around here...”

“Yeah, but not as much as you get around, apparently.” Sirius managed one snort before you smacked him upside the back of his head with Remus’s book.

“Remus you’re next if you keep that up,” you said. Remus masked his snickering with a sip of pumpkin juice and re-emerged with a straight face.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got detention with Filch this week too,” Sirius informed you.

You piled some peas onto your plate. “What for?”

Remus placed his cup down and swallowed his drink. “We got caught planning to flood the Slytherin common room last night.”

“So you didn’t even get to go through with the plan?”

“Nope.”

You looked at Sirius, then Remus. A little bit of revenge against Hemlock and Blackrose would be nice. “Right. Give it a month but I'm definitely up for making some Slytherin's swim."

\--


	12. 6th Year - Pictures and Pranks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello loves! I dedicate this chapter as a Thanksgiving present to any American's reading this story (if there's any out there). 
> 
> Enjoy & let me know what you think x

**October, 1976**

The leaves around the Hogwarts Grounds had started to turn yellow and the fresh blooming flowers that lined the stone walls in the Great Hall had begun to wilt. By the 1st of October the Spring decorations around the school magically transformed into pumpkins and floating candles that had a light spice-scent to them. In the evening the sky in the Great Hall was filled with flying bats. Statues around the school had adorned spooky costumes and Peeves the poltergeist was making himself more of a nuisance than ever during the pranking season.

Your pace was rushed this morning as you walked from Ancient Runes to Charms class. Professor Babbling had given you some new animal runes to look at this semester and you had spent the lesson figuring out their numerical representations. Your head was spinning around images of a Quintaped when a knight in armor grabbed your shoulder. You screamed and whipped out your wand only to realise it had gone stationary once more. Flitwick was known to put little charms in place before Halloween. Before you could put your wand away you heard an unfamiliar sickly sweet voice calling your name. You took the bait and decided to see who was around the corner.

It was sixth year Slytherin Isabella Blackrose. She stood up from the bench she was sitting on and walked over to you. "Want to see something scary?"

You stared hard at her face. The dark red lipstick she was wearing made her skin seem paler than usual. "I'm already looking at something scary, Blackrose," you replied with a small roll of your eyes.

Instead of taking offence to your insult an evil smirk formed on Blackrose's painted lips. To you, that wasn't a good sign. She used her wand to magic a polaroid photograph out of her cloak pocket. It floated up in front of you, hovering in the air. Your face screwed up as you squinted at the image that was increasingly becoming more and more familiar. _In the image was you_. Blackrose had a black and white photograph of you under a tree in a seclude part of the Hogwarts Grounds. The picture hovered tantalisingly in the air and all at once the memory of the image flooded back to you. Tristan had taken the picture on his camera after you had both been for a dip in the Great Lake late one evening last year. You had put your grey school skirt back on and on the top you were only in a lacy black bra. You watched the photographed version of yourself give Tristan a little twirl and blow a kiss at the camera. You laughed and moved closer to the camera, playfully shoving Tristan away so you could finish getting dressed.

Without a second thought your arm shot out to grab the photograph. As your fingertips touched the image it split into two copies. A confused look crossed your face as Blackrose's malicious grin deepened. You scrambled to pick up both the images, only making matters worse as once you touched the duplicated image, it doubled again to produce more copies. Students nearby stopped to pick up a copy of the photo, causing it to multiply.

Blackrose had cursed the image with a doubling charm so in no time at all the whole floor was covered with the same intimate picture of yourself. You stood still for a moment, watching the chaos unfold in front of you. Girls pointed at you and whispered among themselves, whilst the boys snickered and tucked the picture into their pockets.

Blackrose beamed when saw how infuriated you were at the men ogling the image. “I’m sure seeing you in your knickers isn’t anything new for them.”

Your wandless hand clenched into a fist and you were sure you were about to hit her when a spell shot over your shoulder and sent Blackrose flying backwards. Her fall was cushioned by a pile of images, the soft landing making it easier for her to jump back up onto her feet with her wand out.

James appeared next to you. He clapped you on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze of reassurance. “Don’t be jealous that no-one wants to see you in your knickers, Blackrose.”

James didn’t realise that that wasn’t exactly a compliment towards you but you were glad that he was here by your side. You were even more grateful that Tristan happened to appear a few seconds later.

“Who did this?” he asked, looking around the crowd.

“I did,” Blackrose answered with pride. Though she directed her answer to Tristan her wand was pointed at James. He was the bigger threat.

Tristan took out his own wand and cast a spell that reversed the doubling charm. You secretly thanked your past self for dating an intelligent Ravenclaw who knew these kind of things. “Do you think it’s funny to humiliate others?” he said.

Blackrose jutted her chin out. “Oh I think it’s very funny.”

“Merlin's sake, hold me back,” you muttered to James in anticipation of what was coming.

“That picture speaks a thousand words. [Surname] a disgrace to pure-bloods, not to mention a whore - "

You felt James’s hands tighten around your shoulders and attempt to pull you back into his chest but it was too late. “Expelliarmus!” The disarming charm you cast sent Blackrose flying back once again. She scrambled onto her elbows to grab her wand but you were faster than her and had already kicked it to the side.

You heard Tristan calling your name to stop you but it was James who pulled you back before you could cast another spell. He pulled you towards him and locked your wrists behind you.

Tristan shot Blackrose a horrible look before speaking. “She’s not worth the detention, [Name].”

“She bloody well is.” You heard James give a small snort at your defiance. You wriggled in James’s grasp trying to free yourself but he held you tightly. He knew if he slipped up and let you go whatever you did would earn you a months worth of detention.

“Oi, Blackrose, if you even think about coming near [Name] again you’ll be dealing with me,” he told her. “And you don’t want that.” James had to be one of the best duellers at Hogwarts so this wasn’t an empty threat.

Blackrose was on her feet now and with a tauntingly self satisfied smile she turned on her heel and walked away. Though James and Tristan came to your aid you knew that the damage was already done. The cursed image may no longer multiply but it had been seen by tons of students.

“Anyone who has a copy of the photo can hand it in now without any consequences.” James walked up and down the corridor using his authoritative voice to make sure everyone was clear on the matter. Tristan and yourself picked up as many copies of the image as you could, stuffing them into your backpack.

Even James Potter wasn't intimidating enough for teenage boys to give back such a provocative image. He had gotten a few back (mainly from Gryffindors) but you were sure a lot of students had snuck away without handing back their copy of the photo. Or at least handing back all the copies they might've gotten their hands on...

When James had left the scene and most of the hovering students had gone away you were left alone with Tristan. You hadn't spoken to him since you had recovered at the Hospital Wing just after you had broken up. “Thank you," you said softly, pleased that your voice hadn't cracked. "For reversing the curse.”

“Of course.” Tristan looked puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I have done that?”

You bit your lip and shrugged. “Don’t know. You don’t owe me anything.”

Tristan laughed. “You mean you’re not mad at me?” Your face told him otherwise. “That picture... I took it and I’m the only one who had a copy of it, right? Obviously someone in my dorm got a hold of it somehow before it made its way into Blackrose’s slimy hands...” Tristan shook his head in disappointment, his brown curls falling into his eyes. "I should've kept it in a safer place..."

You took a deep breath. “It’s not your fault. That witch just has it out for me.”

Though you thought it was odd that Tristan would keep that image of you in his dorm despite having been broken up for over a month now, no matter how sensible he was, he was still a teenage boy. And for teenage boys Tristan was probably one of the more mature ones.

\--

Dinner in the Great Hall that evening was bundles of fun for you. You spent most of the meal instructing Sirius to go and intimidate anyone you spotted with the picture. He'd retrieved 15 copies back before dessert (pumpkin pie) appeared. The only good thing that happened during the meal was McGonagall telling you that she was proud of you for not jinxing Blackrose. McGonagall had no idea how much self restraint it had taken you. Or how securely James had pinned your arms behind you... You felt slightly better knowing that Slughorn had given Blackrose detention and she had lost Slytherin 30 house points.

After dinner you told Peter to head to the Gryffindor common room and snoop around to see if anyone else had copies of the image. You were going to go to the library to study, hoping that you could make yourself invisible for a while. The library was quiet up the back and you were able to study undisturbed for the most part until Snape took a seat across from you later that evening. When he didn’t take out a book or any notes you looked up at him again, deciding that this must be one of those rare occasions where he approached you because he wanted to talk to you. 

“I heard you have been causing problems again.”

You perked an eyebrow. You were too intrigued by his sudden appearance to not respond. “Have I? What problems have I caused?"

“Distracting all the men at Hogwarts.” Snape’s lip curled upwards. Snape wasn't known to tip-toe around people's feelings so you were taken aback that he was being so delicate about the situation that had occurred earlier.

Blackrose’s ‘whore’ comment had made you mad at the time. It was aggravating because it was so far from the truth. But because it was a lie you couldn't help but smile at Snape’s small joke about being a distraction. Truth be told you were more concerned about her pure-blood comment. You let that thought slip to the back of your mind so you could keep the conversation light-hearted for the time being.

You lifted your eyes from your parchment, feather quill in your hand. “It’s not my fault I’m so irresistible."

“No, it’s not.”

 _Y_ _ou were shocked._ Was Snape humouring you? He continued to look at you, his eyes not as cold as they tended to be. He looked more relaxed than usual as he waited for you to speak.

“What’s done is done. I guess I can’t really obliviate everyone who saw the image so..." You shrugged to convey that you weren’t bothered that everyone had seen you in your bra. You were bothered though, because that picture was supposed to be for Tristan's eyes only.

“I guess not,” Snape agreed softly, watching you put down your quill. His eyes began studying you again and you had a sudden urge to ask him if he had seen the image.

You fought hard against this urge and lowered your eyes back down to reread the same sentence about conjuration in your Advanced Transfiguration book.

“It’s almost curfew.”

Snape interrupted your pretend reading and you closed your book after marking your spot with an old chocolate frog wrapper. Packing up your quill and parchment with a flick of your wand you walked back to the Gryffindor common room together in silence.

The Fat Lady was already in her nightgown when you reached the Gryffindor Tower. She looked surprised to see you back before curfew. "Do my eyes deceive me, Miss [Surname]? It's five minutes before curfew! This is unbelievable!"

You heard Snape snort at the look of disbelief the Fat Lady was giving you. _She was probably just disappointed that she couldn't shout at you,_ you thought.

“Goodnight," Snape said as he turned away to head to the dungeons.

"C'mon, let me in before I get in trouble," you muttered to the Fat Lady, speaking the password and ducking down to enter the Gryffindor common room.

\--


	13. 6th Year - Payback with a Bang

**October, 1976**

It took about two weeks after the photo fiasco for the catcalls and snickering to subside. Of course no one dared say anything to you when you were with the Marauders because they knew they'd get jinxed. Even walking to class with Lily helped because of her Prefect status. If anyone said anything about you she'd instantly remove House Points. It was only when you were on your own that you heard whispers of hurtful comments. You had to remind yourself that reacting was what Blackrose wanted you to do. Plus if you got caught dueling one more time you may as well kiss all your evenings in October goodbye.

Thursday afternoons you had a free period before Charms. You spent these free periods practicing Gobstones in the courtyard with Nala. Five minutes before class started you had packed up and headed to the classroom. Arriving early you sat on the stone bench outside the room chatting. A few other students arrived and mulled around waiting for Flitwick. Someone had opened a chocolate frog and was trying to use an engorgement charm on it.

“[Name].” You looked away from the other students and saw Snape standing in front of you with his hands in his cloak pocket. It was rare that he spoke to you when there were other people around.

“Hey,” you responded from your seat. Nala didn’t greet the Slytherin but didn’t get up to leave. What ever Snape wanted to say he would have to say it in front of her, otherwise he'd have to wait until later to approach you on your own.

Snape must not have cared too much about Nala's presence so with a fleeting look he turned his attention back to you. He removed his pale hand from his cloak and in it he held a bundle of the infamous picture that Blackrose had circulated. Snape could tell you were hesitant to take the pictures off him in case they duplicated, despite Tristan reversing the curse on the day. He pushed them slightly closer to you to reassure you it was ok.

You took the images off Snape and flicked through them. There had to be about was about 40 copies here.

Snape answered the question that must have been visibly lining your features. “I used a variation of the summoning charm. These are the all the ones Slytherin’s had taken.”

You were actually speechless. You could not find the words to express what you were thinking. You couldn’t believe Snape had put so much effort into doing something that would not benefit him in any way. Weeks ago Remus and yourself had tried using 'Accio' to get the pictures back but it hadn't worked. The spell Snape created must have taken so much time, effort, and skill.

_And most of all he did this purely for you..._

“Thank you,” you managed to choke out just as Flitwick arrived to open the classroom. Snape nodded and turned away to go inside the classroom. You looked at Nala with wide eyes, her expression showing that she was equally as floored as you were.

Filing into Charms you took your seat next to Nala. “I can’t believe Snape did that,” she whispered as other students filed into the classroom. She took out her Charms book from her bag. “Why did he do it? Is he actually a good person?”

You snorted. Nala must have a very low opinion of Snape. “I guess so...”

“If I got a hold of that many copies of that picture I’d definitely be selling them back to all the boys – **OW!** _Did you just kick me?_ "

“Snape isn’t going to do that, you idiot!” you said under your breath because Flitwick was looking over at you and wondering what the noise was about.

“Well he’s not the sort to keep them for his own pleasure, is he?”

“No!” You almost blushed at the thought. That didn't sound like Snape at all. Then again, this whole scenario didn't seem particularly like the Snape you knew.

“You owe him for that, ya know.”

“I didn’t ask him to do it...”

“Still,” Nala argued, “He did you a huge favour. Imagine all those horrible Slytherin's perving at your picture whilst -..." Nala let out a even louder yelp when your foot connected with her shin.

Your little conversation had attracted Sirius's attention from somewhere up the back of the classroom because he threw a piece of scrunched up piece of parchment at you both. "Hey, Flitwick is trying to teach here!" he said with a grin when the parchment bounced off your head.

You gave Sirius a scowl and then turned back to Flitwick with a guilty look on your face. You straightened up in your chair and mouthed 'sorry' to your Professor. As the lesson continued you sighed inwardly. Nala was right. Whether or not Snape expected any type of retribution for what he had done: you did feel like you owed him something.

\---- ~ * ~ ----

It was October 31st - Halloween. To end the ultimate pranking month with a bang you had finally gotten together with the Marauders and put together a plan to flood the Slytherin common room tonight.

Dinner this evening was a showcase of the best costumes students and teachers could come up with - with or without magic. You had dressed up as Arachne - a woman from Greek mythology who was transformed into a spider. You were learning about the significance of spiders in Ancient Runes and had decided that she was a perfectly spooky costume for tonight. Professor Babbling had even complimented your outfit. You had charmed 8 large pipes covered in brown felt onto your back to act as your other spiders legs. It had all been going well until James had started using the extra legs as a leash to drag you around the Hall. You were now a sulking 7 legged spider, but your large venomous fangs and the extra eyes you had painted on your head still managed to scare some little first years.

After the Halloween feast students lingered in the Hall after dessert, chatting with their friends and watching the carvings in the pumpkins change shape. From the corner of your eye you saw Snape get up and leave the Slytherin table. You had been internally debating whether or not you should tell him about what you had planned tonight. You'd have to be very crafty about it because if your friends found out Snape knew about the prank they'd never speak to you again. Not that Snape was the only target of their prank, but still.

Deciding that you really did owe Snape for getting those pictures back you followed him out of the Great Hall. Realising he was heading back to the dungeons you nipped down a secret passageway Peter had shown you once before and ended up in front of Snape. You walked back up the corridor to meet him coming down the other way.

You stopped right in front off him. “Hi.”

Snape stopped walking and stood still. You could see slight confusion on his face, probably wondering how you got down here so fast and what you were down here anyway.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?” Snape said dully. He watched you shift your gaze from him to the ground and shuffle your feet on the stone floor. It was astounding how such a popular and pretty (even when dressed as a spider) Gryffindor could be equally as awkward when she wanted to be.

“That picture of me...” You stared firmly at your black school shoes on your normal, human legs. You were so surprised Snape had even gotten involved in the matter that you couldn't even ask him what you wanted to know. You'd never seen him do anyone even the smallest favour.

Snape gave a tired sigh, indicating that you were taking up too much of his precious time. “What about it?”

“You... I... Why did you get them back?”

“Those pictures are yours.”

“You didn't have to do that for me, though."

“No. I didn't." Now that you had made eye contact with Snape his eyes implored yours as he contemplated the real reason you were bringing this subject up.

“You don’t -"

“I don’t think any less of you.” Snape anticipated your question before you finished it.

He answered with such certainty that you were willingly able to ignore how completely fed up he looked with the conversation. You took a brave step closer and leant up on your tip toes to wrap your arms around his neck and give him a brief hug. He didn't pull away, yet you really didn't give him enough time to respond. As quickly as it had happened you had already moved away from him.

“I just wanted to let you know that if I were you I’d try to avoid the Slytherin common room this evening."

“Why would that be?” he said. His tone had changed now and he sounded irritated.

“No reason. Just some friendly advice."

With a sweeping looking Snape continued down the corridor to the dungeons.

No doubt you were going to pull some sort of prank with your idiot friends. It was frustrating how easily you were persuaded to misbehave. You were smart, but Severus had to remind himself you were, after all, a Gryffindor. What was unusual was that you had warned him about the prank. Severus's lip curled upwards. He knew that Potter and Black would be mad that he'd avoid the attack.

Severus made sure to head to the library after gathering his belongings from the boys dormitory. He didn’t care enough about the other students in the common room to warn them, plus a large part of him was curious about what was going to happen.

\---- ~ * ~ ----

Everything had gone to plan. You had had successfully flooded the Slytherin common room without being caught by a Professor or a Prefect. Once the first Slytherin had opened the dungeon door in panic water had flooded into the corridors. You had magicked some Dr Filibusters Fabulous Wet Start Fireworks to dangle from the ceiling. As soon as the entrance wall opened and Slytherins came out to escape the flooded common room the fireworks fell from the roof, touched the water, and set off. You and your friends were already running away down the corridor laughing. You could hear the screams and bangs behind you. Using the Marauders Map you got back to the Gryffindor common room without getting caught. It’d be damn obvious who had pulled the prank but the Professors would have a hard time proving it.

October went out with a bang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think and I'll see you all in 2019 xx


	14. 6th Year - Christmas Drinks

**December, 1976**

Hogsmede was thick with snow at this time of the year and you were wrapped up in a red knitted jumper completed by a beanie, gloves, and a Gryffindor scarf. You had spent most of the trip being whipped in the face by the cold wind as you wandered down the cobbled streets of the small town with James and Sirius. Together you entered all the joke shops, sweet shops, and Quidditch shops the town had to offer. You had purchased a new pair of gold earrings with some money your parents had sent you for getting good marks in Arithmancy. James had contemplated getting Lily something but you had flat out told him that Lily would hex him if he bought her another gift to persuade her into dating him. He was going to have to try a different approach like perhaps, you suggested, to stop acting like a complete bellend. 

Across the street you saw a dark figure enter a bookshop. You knitted your brows together and immediately a foolish plan formed in your head. “Hey, I’ll catch you guys later,” you said to your friends, dashing across the road.

“Where are you going?” James shouted to you, his voice small against the wind.

“Book shop!” you called back. Even though your answer was truthful you knew there would be no way James or Sirius would follow you into some dingy book shop. Remus hadn't been feeling well this weekend and had opted to stay at Hogwarts with Peter so you were fairly certain you wouldn't see them in there either. 

The musty smell of books tickled your nostrils as soon as you entered. Silence filled your ears and you noticed that there was no-one on bottom floor of the shop apart from an old cobwebby wizard who gave you a dirty look from behind the dusty wooden counter. He averted his eyes and muttered something foul about students under his breath. You crept up the rickety staircase trying not to make the wooden floorboards squeak. Your back was pressed closely to the shelves as you navigated your way around, hoping to spot Snape without him spotting you first. Creeping down one aisle you bent down and looked under the bottom shelf to spot Snape's unpolished black shoes.

Crouching, you took out your wand and whispered the levitating spell, “Wingardium leviosa.”

The book closest to Snape's head began floating in mid-air, spinning back and forth. Another thick book rose off the shelf, dangling next to his ear.

“What the — “

You closed your eyes and raised your hand to your mouth, trying to stifle your giggling. You didn’t even notice that Snape's feet had moved and were now close to your side. You gasped and dropped your wand, the books falling with a loud thud to the ground in the next aisle and leaving you caught red handed by a grumpy look Slytherin.

“ _What_ do you think you're doing?"

You stood up from your crouching position and grabbed his hand. "Quick!" 

The shop keeper could be heard climbing up the frail staircase. You pulled Snape down the same staircase behind you at an excruciatingly fast pace, pushing passed the old wizard and almost knocking him down the stairs.

He shook his fist, fumbling for his wand. “Wait, you two come back here!“

“This’ll teach you to call your customers grotty children!” you yelled, dashing out of the shop and out onto the street.

The cold air smacked your face hard but you continued to run. You knew the streets of Hogsmede well so you ran down a narrow alleyway, finally collapsing against the wall when you knew the shopkeeper wouldn't find you.

A large grin was on your face when you turned to Snape. “You can probably never go into that shop again, you know.”

He was quiet, studying you. “What were you doing?”

You weren’t sure whether he was actually angry or not.

“You could have gotten us into trouble." 

You scoffed. “In Hogsmede? What’s that old sod going to do, send Dumbledore a Howler? Doubt it.” _You should've guessed Snape wouldn't want anything to do with joking around._

Snape's mouth formed a tight line and he turned away to walk out of the alleyway.You rolled your eyes at his tough exterior. You couldn’t believe things were still so difficult between the two of you, especially after all the progress you had made this year. You decided to follow him anyway.

“Where are we going?” you asked once you had caught up to him.

“I’m going back to Hogwarts.”

“NO!” you exclaimed, beginning to panic. The whole point of approaching Snape in the first place was to trick him into hanging out with you in Hogsmede! “Let's spend time together. Where would you like to go?”

“I just told you, I’m going — “

“How about there?” You pointed at a placed called the ‘Old Thatch Tavern'.

Through the windows you could see that the downstairs of the building was a pub. You couldn't recognise any faces of those inside - they all looked to old to be Hogwarts students. This was good because strangers wouldn't think it was weird to see you and Snape together. Perhaps Snape might open up more if there weren't other students around.

“What? Why would you want —“

“Come on.” You grabbed his hand again and began walking towards the Tavern.

“ _Won’t even let me finish my sentences…_ ” you heard Snape mumble crossly. He was still being somewhat dragged against his will behind you so you pretended to ignore his comment.

The two of you entered the Tavern and you gave Snape a small nudge in the back, pointing to some empty seats. You ordered two drinks and carefully put them down at the table. Snape gave you thanks and took a sip. He may as well humour you with this whole ‘being friends’ nonsense now that you had forced him to join you for a drink. A loud giggle came from a table across the room and you looked over at a young couple. The boy couldn’t keep his hands off the girl and kept tickling her. In return, she rewarded him with flirty giggles, slapping his hands away playfully. A second later they began snogging furiously, almost knocking their drinks from the table. The barkeeper shook his head as he walked passed, a small smile on his face.

The sight of the two young lovers and smiling barkeeper made you grin.

Snape, however, did not look pleased in the slightest. “Dunderheads…” he muttered, looking at the couple in disdain.

“Aw, don’t you think it’s a little bit cute?” you asked, knowing that Snape would never admit that anything was ‘cute’.

He frowned and answered just how you’d come to expect. “No.”

"That's how people behave when they're young and in love." You rose your drink to your mouth to hide the smirk appearing on your lips. You knew you were pushing the limit with your comments.

Predictably, Snape crossed his arms self-consciously. “I’ve got better things to do than _that._ ”

You laughed. The warm butterbeer was making you feel giddy. “Better things like what? Hang out with me?” Snape didn’t answer you, but took a sip of his drink. “C'mon, I think you’d be a good boyfriend.”

Snape almost choked on his butterbeer but recovered just in time. “Why would you think that?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Much to his nerve you gave him a smile and an uncommitted shrug as an answer.

 _She can’t just say that and not tell me why._ Snape wracked his brain thinking of how he could get more information out of you without his curiosity seeming conspicuous. No girl had ever thought that he would make a good boyfriend. 

Lily certainly didn’t think that. It had taken Snape years to realise that he had been in love with Lily. In fact, it was the loss of her friendship that had made him realise it all the more. She had been the first girl to ever give him attention accompanied by a proper and true friendship and he had ruined everything after a regrettable mistake. He hated himself for what had happened and he had come to accept that Lily would never forgive him despite how much he had begged and pleaded. At times he hated her for that - for not forgiving him and ending their friendship. He had given up trying to contact her over the summer and hadn’t spoken to her since returning to Hogwarts this year.

When Snape glanced at the couple kissing in the bar, he didn’t imagine Lily anymore. Not when you were sitting right in front of him. The things that were alluring to him now were characteristics that Lily didn’t possess. Snape would never admit it but whether you realized it or not you had the ability to make him feel wanted. He had never experienced that feeling before.

Needless to say, Snape wasn’t happy about this either. He had tried so hard not to like you, but here he was. Thinking that (to his horror) he actually _liked you_. He was enjoying spending time with an optimistic rule breaking Gryffindor who played _stupid_ practical jokes and was friends with the people he hated.

“What are you thinking?” You had finished your butterbeer and noticed that Snape had been silent for longer than usual.

“N-Nothing,” he stammered. A noticeable change in his voice made him sound tense and uneasy. He pushed his chair back and shot up from the table.

Before you could grab your coat Snape had rushed out the door, a distant black blur swirled harshly against the white snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the one on one time with our moody Slytherin. 
> 
> A side note - I really want to improve my writing (especially writing descriptions) so if anyone has any links to good advice (or any advice they wanna share) please let me know. I wanted to add Sev's thoughts in this chapter so I hope that transition wasn't too awkward. 
> 
> Thank you again for all your comments I really appreciate them x


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